2-12-16

18A — February 12 - 25, 2016 — Auction — M id A tlantic

Real Estate Journal

www.marejournal.com

A uctions

The 71 properties for which liens were sold have a total assessed value of $8 million City of Paterson auctions off liens on 71 vacant properties for $1.2m P

be when these properties are fixed up and brought back to life,” said Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres after the auction. “They key will be when they’re back on the tax rolls moving for- ward.” More than 30 b i dder s showed up for the auction, but just eight ended up buying anything. Prominent 4th Ward devel- oper Charles Florio, who says he already owns more than 200 properties in Paterson, was the big buyer in Thurs- day’s auction. Florio spent about $860,000 to acquire

liens on 62 of the parcels that were up for bidding. He also will have to pay an extra 10 percent on top of that for the auction company’s fee. “I got what I wanted,” said Florio, smiling in the City Council chambers where the auction was held. “They sold for cheaper than I thought, much cheaper. There was no real money in the room.” The properties were auc- tioned off in bundles, which were grouped together by elec- tion district. Seven bundles of liens on a total of nine prop- erties were bought by people other than Florio. Paterson resident Iralda Cruzado bid on several of the bundles and usually was out-priced by Florio. “That guy, he’s the new owner of Paterson,” Cruzado laughed, pointing towards the lawyer who placed bids on Florio’s behalf, Michael Rubin. Cru- zado said she was hoping to acquire some properties as investments. The majority of the prop- erties in the auction were in some of Paterson’s worst neighborhoods, including 32 in the 4th Ward and 27 in the 1st Ward. The largest sale was $145,000 for a bundle of seven properties in the 4th Ward on Hamilton Avenue and Van Houten and Ellison streets. Florio purchased that one as well as all the other liens available in the 4th Ward. Councilwoman Ruby Cotton, who represents the 4th Ward, saidFlorio has a strong track re- cord with the homes he already owns in her district. “I think it’s a good thing because he will rehab them,” Cotton said. At present, Florio mostly rents out apartments in mul- tifamily homes. But he said he may look into developing some of the locations in Thursday’s auction as homes for sale. The city originally had been planning to auction off liens on more than 100 vacant properties. But the owners of about 30 of them paid their back taxes when they learned of the impending lien sale, of- ficials said. Paterson was the first city in New Jersey to conduct the special tax lien sale under the new law regarding vacant properties, officials said. The bidding was conducted by the Annandale-based com- pany of Max Spann Real Estate and Auction . n

ATERSON, NJ — The city picked up almost $1.2 million in extra revenue on Thursday morning through a ground-breaking auction of tax liens on 71 abandoned properties. Under a state law enacted last year, the winning bidders can begin foreclosure proceed- ings within 10 days, far sooner than the two-year waiting period they would have faced if they purchased the liens through a standard sale. Once they foreclose, the lien buyers would have to finish renovat- ing the properties within six

ficials said. Their owners were about $2.4 million delinquent on their taxes, officials said. The city will not get the full value of the back taxes – just the money from the lien sale. “We’re happy to get the rev- enue, but the real prize will Charles Florio of North Bergen, with JCM Investors of Paterson, and Gary Tsirelman of New York, with Capitol 7 LLC, stand with Paterson Mayor Joey Torres at the conclusion of the auction in Pat- erson on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016.

months or the city can take ownership, under the law. The 71 properties for which liens were sold have a total as- sessed value of $8 million, of-

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