A Day at the Auction- Going Once, Going Twice..........?

As many of you know, Kirkhaven has been actively working with local Real Estate Developer, Larry Glazer and Buckingham Properties on a potential Kirkhaven Replacement project on the site of the former Armory on Culver Road across from Cobbs Hill Park. The site is owned by the State of New York and earlier this week the State put the site up for public auction. I have never attended such an event, but since Kirkhaven had a keen interest in the outcome of the auction, I went to observe the action. I had no idea I was in for such high drama worthy of a Blog posting.

At exactly 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, I walked into the Ebenezer Watts Conference Center where the auction was scheduled to take place. The room was packed, standing room only in the back and every news station and media lined up along the side wall with cameras and microphones at the ready. I sat down in the seat saved for me along with the Buckingham Properties team. The State auctioneer began his prepared statements and "rules of engagement" as I measured up the competition. A full house didn't set well with me and for the first time I began to think this might not go down the way we hoped.

It was about a year ago when Larry and I first spoke about the Kirkhaven Replacement project. Larry is one of the biggest local real estate developers and he took an immediate interest in our project. Over the next several months we would periodically touch base about properties he owned, but then he called me to say he had the "perfect site for us". He was talking with the City of Rochester about the old Armory site and attempting to pull together a 3-way deal to gain site control. In the final analysis, the decision was made to forgo a deal through the City and instead let the property go to public auction where we might pick it up at a better deal. The site has an ideal location, but some environmental issues that although our project could work around, other projects could not without substantial cost.

Larry and I spoke a few days prior to the auction to discuss a maximum bid price strategy that we thought the project could support. Since Buckingham Properties would be the bidder and potential property owner, Kirkhaven was only an interested party in a potential lease deal on the eventual developed property. All the risk and decision making were in the hands of Buckingham Properties, but this was nothing new to Larry.

I arrived at the auction site at 12:30, spoke to a State representative and learned there were several registered bidders. I also learned that 2 other auctions for armories in other parts of the State had been woefully attended and sold for nearly nothing. That was encouraging news. The room was pretty empty, but I also discovered the auction wouldn't start until 1:00, so I opted to take a walk. I picked up a burger and coke from the street vendor at Court and Main and sat outside the conference center eating and sizing up the folks who began to enter the building.

When the auctioneer finished his introductory remarks he then informed everyone that the bidding would begin at $500,000 and move up in $20,000 increments at first and then $10,000 or $5,000. Bidder #1 boldly opened the bidding at $500,000. A few others threw out competitive bids, but bidder # 1 quickly countered every bid with a brash and arguably erratic higher bid each time. In no time at all, the bidding passed the $750,000 mark and the bidding slowed down. I was intrigued by bidder #1, although I could only see the back of his head. He sounded like a kid and wore a Buffalo Sabres cap and cut off sweat-shirt. I whispered to the "suits" on either side of me, "who is this guy," but neither knew. As the auctioneer shouted going once, going twice............suddenly a suit from the other side of the room threw out his first bid and the game was on. Bidder # 1 and Bidder # 8 went back and forth and back and forth. The kid rarely paused as he threw out his cocky bid retorts, the suits took their time as everyone waited in anticipation. Was this it, was it over? But each time the suits raised the bid.

Then Larry jumped in with a bid at $900,000. My blood began to run faster. "Okay", I thought, "Larry's in the game and this might get really interesting now". The suits and bidder #1 kept raising it higher and Larry jumped in again at just over a million dollars, but the bid went higher yet and Larry put his card away. The bidding had gone beyond our intended limit and now the only drama that remained was would the kid in the Sabres cap out last the suits.

The whole process took about 20 minutes and every minute was intense. With each bid, the cameras would shift their attention to the other bidder and the room would wait. You could cut the tension with a knife and when a counter bid was finally shouted out, the room would take a breath and shift its collective attention to the other bidder. And so it went until the suits put out a bid of just under 1.5 million and the kid laid down his card. Going once, going twice...........SOLD!

The winning bidder was another local real estate developer who would later explain that he has no known plans for the site, but couldn't pass up the opportunity for such a great piece of real estate. We'll talk to him about our plans, but that is a long shot given the high price he paid for the site. The "kid" wasn't as young as I had thought and turned out to be a partner in a local group that wanted to turn the Armory into some type of sporting venue for the neighborhood.

I am disappointed that yet another option for our Kirkhaven Replacement project has appeared to have hit a dead end, but for every door that closes, another door opens up. We'll keep on searching and talking and something will eventually come along. Maybe something with less drama and a happier ending. Larry Glazer has already indicated to me that he has another possible venue for us to explore, so let the games continue and keep the faith!