JIM LOCKWOOD, STAFF WRITER / Published: October 6, 2016
The bank foreclosing on two downtown Scranton office buildings owned by a Boscov-related firm dropped the price for both properties from $4 million to $3.7 million, according to real estate ads for the properties.
NBT Bank began mortgage foreclosure proceedings on the Oppenheim building at Lackawanna and Wyoming avenues and the Samter’s building at Lackawanna and Penn avenues after owners Scranton Mall Associates defaulted on a loan.
A series of recent public notices for a Lackawanna County Sheriff’s Department sale of the properties Oct. 18 lists the amount sought by the bank as $4,060,445.
In advance of the sheriff’s sale, the bank retained Hinerfeld Commercial Real Estate in Scranton to market the properties for a total sale price of $3.7 million, said Hinerfeld Realtor John Cognetti.
The $3.7 million total sought by the bank includes $3.2 million for the former Oppenheim building and attached Lewis & Reilly building; and $500,000 for the Samter’s building, Mr. Cognetti said.
The Oct. 18 sheriff’s sale will involve separate auctions for each property, he said.
If the bank doesn’t get the minimum amounts wanted for either building, the bank would get ownership through the foreclosure process, he said. The bank then would continue trying to sell the property on the open market, he said.
Along with posting the properties on the Hinerfeld website, the firm recently ran ads for the buildings in local media outlets, including in The Sunday Times.
“We’ve gotten a lot of interest in the properties,” Mr. Cognetti said.
The $4.06 million total in the sheriff’s sale represents the amount owed on a $10 million loan from the bank to Scranton Mall Associates in 2003 secured by a mortgage and that the company defaulted on, according to the foreclosure action filed in May in Lackawanna County Court.
Both sides agreed in June to a consent judgment for the bank to seek $4.06 million in a sheriff’s sale of the two properties.
On Sept. 7, the sheriff’s department posted a public notice on the Oppenheim building for an Oct. 18 sheriff’s sale of both buildings for the $4.06 million.
The sheriff’s department followed with listings of the sheriff’s sale published in public notices in the Sept. 23 and Sept. 30 editions of The Times-Tribune.
Scranton City Councilman Wayne Evans, also a Realtor, called the methods employed by the bank “interesting.” Holding two separate sales also should create more marketability in selling either property or both of them, he said.
“I have more questions than answers on this one,” Mr. Evans said. “I’m curious about how they’re going to let this go.”
It’s the second foreclosure of major Boscov properties in Scranton in the past two years. A 2014 foreclosure of the former Mall at Steamtown resulted in its sale during an auction last year to Roaring Brook Twp. real estate developer John Basalyga, who renamed it the Marketplace at Steamtown.
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