Entrepreneur aims to create comfortable place for addicts to stay clean

Mike O'Sullivan wants the Spring Valley Club to become a new kind of "Cheers," a place "where everybody knows your name," but nobody drinks booze.

After growing up in Chicago and a three-year stint in college, O'Sullivan moved to Las Vegas and pursued business opportunities as they arose, spending time working in sales for casino dealer schools and driving cabs.

After attending real estate school, O'Sullivan became a real estate broker and investor. After acquiring a foreclosed home, friends suggested he turn it into a halfway house for people in 12-step programs, like those for alcoholics and drug addicts.

O'Sullivan required his tenants to attend meetings but got complaints about the sometimes old and dilapidated rooms where the meetings were held. So he established his own meeting place and 24-hour club.

Question: When did you start buying foreclosed and distressed properties?

Answer: In 1997. In 1999, I ended up with a large home. What does a single guy do with a six- or seven-bedroom, four-bath house? I converted it into a halfway house for drug addicts, alcoholics who were trying to stay clean and sober. There's mandatory attendance at 12-step meetings. You have to sign in and out.

Of course, everybody who moves in will move out. So it's temporary.

Question: Are there permits required to operate a halfway house?

Answer: I have county and state licenses (from the Department of Health and Human Services).

Question: Do you have a standard fee for halfway house residents?

Answer: Anywhere from $100 to $145 (without meals).

Question: How many halfway houses are there in the area?

Answer: Probably more than 100. Only seven or eight of them are licensed. That's always been a sore spot with me. I obey the law, but nobody else seems to.

Question: How many do you have?

Answer: Two, and I'm working on a third one, Sober Living of America, which (unlike the first two) will be nonprofit. So then, with grants given to it, people who are destitute will be able to check in.

Question: How did you become an operator of a 12-step meeting place and lounge?

Answer: With owning the halfway houses, I had people mandated to attend 12-step meetings, and I would get complaints from them about the horrible and deplorable conditions of meeting halls although there are some nice ones.

There are a lot of places where there are 12-step meetings around the valley, but most of them are complete dumps or are in bad neighborhoods, high-crime areas.

I said I can do it, and I can do it better. So I saw the opportunity to open a private sober club, the Spring Valley Club, that hosts meetings for a wide variety of 12-step recovery programs. (O'Sullivan declined to identify these programs by name, but Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous are 12-step recovery programs).

Question: You opened the club in October 2007. Do others operate for-profit meeting halls and lounges for people in 12-step programs?

Answer: Over the last 20 years, I have seen at least four or five (for-profit meeting places) that have come and gone. I watched what they did.

I even talked to some of the people and said, "Hey, you continue to allow 10 or 12 people to sleep in their cars in the parking lot, the landlord won't renew your lease." They called me a liar, but their landlord didn't renew their lease.

We want our business to be for the betterment of the complex, not to be a detriment. Anyone is welcome to come in here, but they cannot use it as a shelter.

Question: The Spring Valley Club looks like a bar.

Answer: I actually tried to simulate the gourmet coffee shop. For instance, we have free Wi-Fi (wireless networks for computers and other devices) for the patrons, free long-distance calling for people that are just getting sober.

Of course, we have the cable, high-definition television. In these 12-step programs, it says the replacement for the particular addiction is the fellowship of those programs. The social area outside of the meeting rooms is meant to facilitate that.

It's like the TV show, "Cheers," you walk in and everybody knows your name. People say, "Hey, how is it going."

Question: You must have regulars?

Answer: Absolutely.

Question: Do they come here several times a week?

Answer: Several times a day.

You know the nicest thing about both of these businesses? The more people I help, the more money I make. It's just like the hospitals.

Question: What other kinds of real estate investments do you make?

Answer: I had a ranch up in Utah. It was 55 acres with a herd of horses. Going back and forth was taking its toll. So I'm looking for a place a little closer. I have two apartment buildings. That's one of the few parts of the real estate market that will get better. Now, with the prices coming back down, the rents will be staying the same.

Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0420.