Nov 19, 2017 4 min read

An upcoming online commercial real estate auction will feature two prominent Washington County buildings, the former Macy’s department store at Washington Crown Center and the downtown office complex known as 90 W. Chestnut St.

According to online information provided by commercial real estate company Ten-X, the 147,608 square-foot, 9-acre retail space formerly occupied by Macy’s department store at Washington Crown Center is one of two local buildings that will be offered in an online reserve auction by Ten-X.

The auctions for both buildings begin Dec. 11 and end Dec. 13. The Macy’s auction requires a starting bid of $300,000 and a participation deposit of $25,000. The property, which is currently owned by Macy’s was built in 1999 for Kaufamann’s department store, which was later acquired by the Macy’s chain.

According to information provided in the sales material, the property, which is adjacent to the Washington Wild Things minor league baseball stadium, has high visibility and signage, and is adjacent to mall anchors that include Sears, The BonTon and Hollywood Theatre.

Washington Crown Center recently announced the addition of another anchor, Rural King, a farm and home store that will open early next year in the space formerly occupied by Gander Mountain.

If the Macy’s property is sold, it could be helpful in attracting additional retailers to the North Franklin Township site.

In August 2016, Kohan Investment Trust of Great Neck, N.Y., purchased the 676,000-square-foot mall from Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. In announcing the signing of Rural King to the shopping complex, Crown Center manager Civil Knox noted that the space occupied by Macy’s that was vacated earlier this year, is owned by the Macy’s chain. While the mall frequently fields calls from national retailers inquiring about available space, she said it can’t market the Macy’s space because it doesn’t own it.

A larger, two-level, 202,000 square-foot retail space owned by Macy’s at the Beaver Valley Mall in Monaca will also be auctioned by Ten-X during the same dates, with a starting bid of $200,000 and a participation deposit of $25,000.

Cara Dello Russo, an agent with Ten-X in New York who is handling the sale, said last week the Macy’s events are reserve auctions, explaining that Macy’s sets an undisclosed price. Those wishing to participate must register in advance of the auction and place their bid, which must at least meet the minimum required amount.

The seller has the option of accepting the price if the reserve is met, or if it isn’t, can choose to accept or reject a lower bid, she said.

Ten-X will also conduct an online reserve auction Dec. 11-13 for 90 W. Chestnut St., a 130,936 square-foot office property that was built in 1977 as Millcraft Center. Millcraft Center Limited Partnership transferred the property in October 2014 to 90 W. Chestnut Property LLC of Minneapolis, as a deed in lieu of foreclosure, an instrument in which a borrower conveys all interest in a property to the lender to satisfy a loan that is in default and avoid foreclosure proceedings.

According to documents filed with the Washington County Recorder of Deeds at the time of the transaction, the property had a fair market value of $12,379,839. The Ten-X information notes the property is 70 percent occupied, includes a nine-story building, which sits on 3 acres and also includes street-level retail and a three-story secondary office building attached with a common hallway.

Ten-X notes that under the current owner, two new elevator systems were installed, new security hours were put in place and HVAC system repairs were made. The starting bid for the property is $2 million with a $25,000 participation deposit.

According to the website Investopedia, reserve price is the minimum dollar amount that the owner of an item up for auction will accept as the winning bid in the auction. The reserve price prevents the auction from being won at a price that is lower than the item’s owner will accept. The auction’s starting price tends to start lower than the reserve price to encourage bidding, but is forced to end at or above the reserve price or the auction is canceled.

According to Investopedia, reserve prices are designed to protect the owner of an auctioned item from an unfavorable outcome. However, auction bidders dislike reserve prices because they reduce the possibility of winning the auction at a bargain price, and because they create uncertainty over the minimum price that must be paid to win the auction.

Dello Russo said Menlo Park, Calif.-based Ten-X conducts the online auctions around the country, noting that they are especially efficient for large companies that have multiple properties they want to sell.