Advertisement

Fantasy Island Listing Price Cut $1 Million

Share

Avi Datner and his sister Shula Datner, owners of the Fantasy Island party venue in rural Agoura, have slashed more than $1 million from the price of the troubled property.

“We’re tired of this thing,” said Tim Pluma, a senior marketing consultant with the property’s broker, Capital Commercial Real Estate. “He just wants to sell it,” he said of Datner.

The broker canceled a July 9 public auction of the 23-acre retreat, a popular site for weddings and bar mitzvahs, because offers were far below the $2.9-million list price. Pluma said the price is now $1.85 million. The property will probably be repackaged as a single estate or a four-unit luxury home development.

Advertisement

Fantasy Island, a glitzy spread with Greek columns in the midst of a rustic canyon neighborhood, has been the source of multiple criminal charges for the Datners. On July 13, they pleaded not guilty to the most recent: felony and misdemeanor counts alleging that they polluted Triunfo Creek when they drained decorative ponds at the retreat, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Nison. They were charged with discharging copper sulfate, used to kill algae, into the waterway.

“If you took [Datner] and put him in the middle of an industrial area, what he did wouldn’t be that significant,” Nison said. “But because of where he was located, it has a greater potential significance. You’re talking about the middle of the mountains, where you’ve got a lot of wildlife.”

In March, Datner pleaded no contest to several misdemeanor counts of failure to comply with county permit and licensing laws and was sentenced to probation. Over the past five years, Fantasy Island’s neighbors have lodged hundreds of complaints about noise and traffic at the retreat.

Attempts Monday to reach the Datners and their attorney, Richard Beada, were unsuccessful.

Advertisement