In separate moves, Copia: The American Center For Wine, Food and the Arts slashed its workforce and operating hours at the sprawling 80,000 square foot downtown Napa wine shrine for the next eight months.
At the same time, Copia chief executive Garry McGuire announced an expansion of sorts - plans to launch a separate 40,000 to 50,000 square foot for-profit Copia satellite in San Francisco. It will open next March.
The moves unveiled by Napa's money-losing wine destination center last week have unsettled the New York insurer that guaranteed to bail out investors who backed the $77 million non-profit if it fails.
ACA Financial Guanranty Corp., which has guaranteed to repay investors who bought tax-exempt bonds issued for Copia by the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, was taken aback by the expansion news, given Copia's past financial performance.
The Bee reported in July that the I-Bank approved a $77 million bond refinancing bailout for Copia last year, even though the center was insolvent after accumulating $40 million in operating losses and faced $224,000 in penalties for breaching federal tax rules.
ACA chief executive Ray Brooks and publicist Morgan Lynch toured the Napa facility two weeks ago and met with McGuire and others to discuss how the center would generate enough cash to repay its bondholders their principal and interest payments.
No expansion or investment plans were discussed at the meeting, Lynch told The Bee.
"This was news to us and not discussed at our meeting at all," she said. "McGuire never told us he was working on investments. It was a complete shock to us. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, but we all want to be on the same page."
McGuire did not return phone calls.
Lynch declined further comment.
In Napa, Copia laid off 24 of its 80 full-time staff on Friday and said it would stay shut four days a week between Oct. 1 and May 31 2009, opening on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The move aims to cut expenses.
That news was tucked at the end of an otherwise upbeat news release announcing Copia has inked "a partnership" with celebrity chef Tyler Florence, star of of Tyler's Ultimate and Food 911 cooking shows.
Florence will become Copia's new dean of culinary education and will oversee Julia's Kitchen, a restaurant inside Copia's Napa facility named for chef Julia Child. That restaurant will remain open seven days a week.
McGuire did not return phone calls, but in a statement issued by Copia's San Francisco publicist, McGuire said Florence's contributions will enhance the experiences, content and retail offerings that Copia sells to food and wine enthusiasts nationwide.
"Copia is undergoing many changes that will allow us to better achieve our mission and become more valuable to our consumer base as well as financially secure," McGuire said.
Call The Bee's Andrew McIntosh at (916) 321-1215.
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