RANCHO CORDOVA, CA (MPG) - The Cordova Community Council has been gifted with an $8 million swath of land and the building that comes with it: the storied Mine Shaft off Highway 50.  
The bequest is one of the largest gifts ever donated to a nonprofit in the city of Rancho Cordova, according to Community Council Executive Director, Shelly Blanchard.  As the gift was unexpected, the council’s 2018 events have already been relatively planned out at various locations across the city so it is unclear at this point what the building may be used for immediately. 
Blanchard said she and a special team of board members and others will be taking a few months now to consider all of the possible options for what to do with the coveted space and adjacent land. 
“We are of course all just scratching our heads over this amazing and incredibly generous gift,” said Blanchard.  “This came to us completely out of the blue.  We had absolutely no warning and so naturally we have no idea at this point what we plan to do with the building.”
Founded in 1959, the Cordova Community Council is a membership-driven, nonprofit organization working in tandem with the city and the Rancho Cordova Chamber of Commerce to organize community programs and celebrations.  Those include the annual Fourth of July and Memorial Day celebrations, arts and entertainment driven programs in conjunction with, among others, the Rancho Cordova Civic Light Orchestra and Rancho Cordova River City Concert Band; special events and programs for area youth, including the annual Kids Day in the Park and the Rancho Cordova iFest, a celebration of the city’s multi-cultural residents and businesses. 

The Council has its own office inside the Rancho Cordova City Hall, and Blanchard said it is unlikely the donated building will be used for administrative purposes, but it has not been ruled out either.  

Mine Shaft owner, Patrick Wills, owned and operated American Recovery Service on Fitzgerald Road in Rancho Cordova and resided in Rancho Cordova for several years, according to his representative Brian Cooley with Cooley & Associates Development Consulting.  Cooley said that, initially, Wills purchased the Mine Shaft property with the intention of moving his company to the building.  As it turns out, says Cooley, it was not big enough for his needs and he set up shop further east. 
Meanwhile, Wills, who is now 64 and living in Las Vegas, has been renting the Mine Shaft out over the years to various business and, in the few years, to the city and the Council for special events, including its annual Heartstoppers Halloween Bash.  

According to Cooley, Wills has moved into a semi-retirement mode and has slowly begun liquidating assets in preparation for his next chapter.  Given the fact that the city is now poised to move forward on the Highway 50 Interchange that will cut across vacant land sitting just at the eastern edge of the Mine Shaft property, Will could have put the land and building up for sale.  
Instead, said Cooley, the donation to the Rancho Community, the council specifically, is a love letter to the community Wills feels a strong connection to.  

“Patrick said he has always considered Rancho Cordova a true partner and a great place to do business and live,” Cooley said.  “So as he is moving into his semi-retirement phase he is unloading his assets through the Patrick Wills Trust and Estate.  He was already making the Mine Shaft space available over the years for other civic and community events and now he just really wanted to be able to make a meaningful donation to the city and see the effects of it while he was still alive.  He’d been watching the city grow and prosper and he just couldn’t think of a better community organization to have serve as the beneficiary of the property than the Community Council.”

According to Blanchard, Wills not only gave the property away, he did so after he invested thousands of dollars into the building to bring it up to snuff, including upgrading the Mine Shaft’s plumbing, putting on a new roof, painting the exterior,  hanging new, contemporary lighting and even bringing in six new heating and air units. 

“It’s just really amazing that he would put all this money and effort into making the building better and then, as it turns out, he was doing it all with the idea in mind to donate it,” Blanchard said. 

Blanchard said she and Wills met several years ago and she approached him about using the vacant Mine Shaft building to offer a community haunted house at Halloween.  It was approved and became a popular annual event.  Given the underground tunnels that cut beneath the outdoor amusement park area and lead into the basement of the building, as well as its neo-gothic architectural frontage, it made a perfect spot for the event, which she said has grown year over year. 

“I asked him about using the building for the Halloween event and to my surprise, he said ‘yes,”’ Blanchard said.  “That’s how our relationship with Patrick began.”

Blanchard said the council has formed a “Mine Shaft Dream Team” that will be working together to brainstorm over all options for the building and land’s use, which may include continuing to lease the spot out to other groups or businesses and would give the Council a steady stream of income.  
She did not rule out the option of selling the land either, which would also create a significant cash pipeline for the nonprofit.  Either way, the decision will be made by summer, Blanchard said, adding that the community and needs of the area’s other nonprofit groups will be given very high priority as the council begins to formulate its plans. 

“Naturally we have been approached by businesses who want to rent out the space from us,” said Blanchard.  “But, we kind of want to use it to do some fun things for the community.  We didn’t’ expect to get this, and now that we have it, there’s a lot to consider. So we are going to hold on to the property for a little while and we will be talking about a lot of different ideas that would potentially be the right move.”