Morgan Lane Real Estate, a Napa company specializing in luxury properties and headed by a prominent local broker, has ceased operation and filed bankruptcy.
The company had operated offices in Napa, St. Helena, Yountville and Sonoma, said the company’s bankruptcy attorney, Michael Fallon of Santa Rosa.
The Morgan Lane Real Estate offices in Marin County are part of a separate business and not affected by the bankruptcy, he said. A spokeswoman for Morgan Lane Real Estate in Lake County said that office also is part of a separate business and unaffected by the bankruptcy.
The president for the Napa company was Michael Silvas, who last year was chairman of the board at the Napa Chamber of Commerce.
At one time 85 real estate agents were affiliated with the company, Fallon said Tuesday. But the real estate downturn proved “disastrous” for the company, Fallon said.
“They went three months without any business,” he said.
In a bankruptcy petition filed last month, the company listed assets of $17,342 and liabilities of $1.7 million.
The listed claims of creditors included $580,000 for the Napa Valley Wine Train. Anthony Giaccio, the wine train’s chief financial officer, said the debt involved a long-term lease for office space owned by the rail company in St. Helena.
Other listed creditors included the Internal Revenue Service, $300,000; former Sebastiani Vineyards president and CEO Mary Ann Cuneo and her husband, Richard, $174,251; and the the Napa Valley Register, $108,928.
A separate Silvas company, Wine Country Fine Properties of Napa, is not part of the bankruptcy, Fallon said. That company this year received a license from the state Department of Real Estate, he said.

– Robert Digitale