Bidders snatched up 101 properties in Thursday’s Luzerne County free-and-clear tax auction, including a former Wilkes-Barre manufacturing building with a real estate tax delinquency dating back more than a decade.
Bids for the 56,000-square-foot building on Oregon Street started at $8,158, and competition drove up the purchase to $43,000.
Brooklyn resident Joeli Weiss prevailed and said he plans to remodel the property for an online-based warehouse business employing up to 30.
Owned by members of the Rockman family, the property carried a $312,915 delinquency dating to 2005. Assessed at $507,900, the 2.4-acre parcel was removed from prior sales due to two bankruptcies, two court actions and two repayment plans that were not honored, officials said.
Back taxes and liens are forgiven at free-and-clear auctions, but taxing bodies each receive a cut if competition drives the purchase price beyond the starting bid. Due to intense competition, particularly for properties in the Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton areas, some purchases Thursday were higher than the taxes owed, which means the delinquent owner will receive the difference.
Weiss also bought five other Wilkes-Barre properties in the sale. The purchase prices before transfer tax is added along with the property addresses listed in county records: 323 Blackman St., $9,000; 247 Horton St., $11,500; 164 Carlisle St., $8,000; a parcel on Magnolia Avenue, $1,232; and 57 Shiber Lane, $7,500.
In total, the 101 bidders paid a combined $1.68 million, including transfer tax, in the auction held at the King’s College Scandlon Physical Education Center, according to tax-claim operator Northeast Revenue Service LLC.
Altamont
The highest purchase price was for the landmark former Altamont Hotel property in downtown Hazleton —$400,000 for the eight-story structure and $52,000 for an adjoining parking lot.
The successful buyer was the Wilmington Savings Bank, which holds an outstanding mortgage on the property. Bank representatives declined to comment on the plans for the site.
The owner, Conshohocken-based Hazleton Partners LP, owed $271,585 in back taxes and did not receive a $2.5 million state redevelopment award due to its failure to proceed with a promised renovation of the structure for retail, offices and senior housing, officials said.
Some other auction highlights:
• A manufacturing building at 55 W. Seventh St. in Wyoming owned by JPM Realty, which has accrued $188,342 in unpaid taxes dating to 1996, was removed from the sale because the owner has again filed for bankruptcy protection.
Assessed at $248,400, the 2.33-acre property most recently housed a cabinet/counter business and had escaped taxation due to two bankruptcies filed in 1997 and 2010, according to officials and records.
Northeast Revenue representatives said they have legal counsel specializing in bankruptcy and will closely monitor the case.
• Pittston resident Robert Stackhouse purchased the Target Table Industries property at 130 Cuba St. in Kingston for $8,000. Municipal officials had filed a lawsuit against Target Table earlier this year, saying the property has been left in a state of disrepair and is causing a public health risk.
• Plymouth Borough bought an 11,403-square-foot commercial building at 111-113 E. Main St. that had housed a variety of retail businesses in past decades. The purchase was for the minimum $1,091 because there were no other bidders.
• Several properties sold for $25,000 or more because of multiple bidders.
The winning bidders, the address of the property based on county records and the purchase price before transfer tax: Jesse Gomez, of Bloomsburg, a commercial/retail building at 9 E. Broad St. in Hazleton, $42,000, and a structure at 413 E. Walnut St., also in the city, for $29,000; Stephen Gawlas, of Hanover Township, a structure at 75 Park Ave. in Wilkes-Barre, $44,000; Juan Montalvan Lopez, of Hazleton, a structure at 621 Peace St. in Hazleton, $27,000; Dolores Lizbinski, of California, a building at 328 W. Broad St. in Hazleton, $26,000; Alexander Brunelle, of Scranton, a structure at 345 N. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre, $25,000; Iftekhar Rana Biplob, of Asset Management in Hazleton, a structure at 119-121 Old River Rd. in Wilkes-Barre, $28,000; and Yandry Cruz Almonte, of Wilkes-Barre, a commercial apartment building at 279-281 N. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre, $31,000.
