CLEVELAND, Ohio — The foreclosure auction of downtown Cleveland’s 925 Euclid Avenue — the 1924 landmark long known as the Huntington Building — has been pushed back a week, to November 10, at the request of the court-appointed receiver overseeing the sale.
The delay was granted by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Fleming after an October 28 deadline passed for the receiver to determine whether submitted bids were qualified for the auction, which is being handled by Gordon Brothers of Boston, according to reporting by NEOtrans. The qualified-bid deadline was extended to midnight on November 8, the auction was reset to November 10, and a hearing on any objections to a sale was moved to 10 a.m. on November 16, NEOtrans reported.
The building at East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue is downtown Cleveland’s second-largest by floor area, at about 1.45 million square feet, behind only Key Tower. Built in 1924 as the Union Trust Bank Building — its banking hall was billed at the time as the world’s largest bank lobby — it later carried the Union Commerce and Huntington names, and its most recent owner has marketed a redevelopment under the name The Centennial.
The foreclosure case was brought by lender Deutsche Bank AG’s New York branch against HH Cleveland Huntington, L.P., an affiliate of Cleveland-based Millennia Companies, after the owner defaulted on loans and unpaid Cuyahoga County taxes totaling $40.1 million, according to NEOtrans and Cleveland Magazine’s CLE Daily. Judge Fleming appointed John Lane, chief executive and managing partner of Mentor-based Inglewood Associates, as receiver in January to manage the property through the sale.
The receiver’s stated reason for the extra week is value. The postponement was requested to “maximize the value and recovery of the property,” and Cleveland Magazine’s CLE Daily reported the same explanation for the new November 10 date. In a sale of this size, a week can matter: it gives bidders more time to qualify and compete, and a competitive auction is the court’s best route to the highest recovery for creditors.
Earlier in the process, the receiver chose not to designate a stalking-horse bidder — the lead bidder whose offer sets a floor for an auction. Inglewood Associates and Gordon Brothers said prospective purchasers they spoke with preferred to compete in an open auction rather than submit a stalking-horse bid, and that marketing had drawn substantial interest from local, national and international investors and developers.
Millennia, meanwhile, has sought for years to redevelop 925 Euclid itself, most recently under The Centennial name — a nearly $500 million, residential-heavy mixed-use program, according to NEOtrans. Cleveland Magazine’s CLE Daily described a conceptual plan for the property calling for more than 200 apartments, office space and a hotel. Whether the current owner can retain an interest through the auction, or a new owner takes the tower in a different direction, is exactly what the November 10 sale will decide.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the auction is now set for November 10, qualified bids are due by midnight November 8, objections will be heard November 16, the property carries $40.1 million in defaulted loans and unpaid taxes, and no stalking-horse bidder was selected, according to NEOtrans, Cleveland Magazine’s CLE Daily, and the receiver’s own sale update. What we are still waiting on: the list of qualified bidders, whether an auction is ultimately needed at all, and the price the building commands — none of which will be public until the sale process plays out.
The stakes for downtown are larger than one building. A 1.45-million-square-foot tower sitting at one of the city’s signature corners cannot stay in limbo without consequences for the surrounding blocks; a funded redevelopment, by contrast, would add residents, hotel rooms and office life to Euclid Avenue. Related coverage: Cleveland loses $7.8 million federal lead grant after HUD risk review.
The sale itself is being run as a court-supervised process designed, in the receiver’s words, to achieve the highest and best outcome for the property. Inglewood Associates and Gordon Brothers said in their sale update that the procedures provide for qualified bids and, if appropriate, a competitive auction — and that the decision not to name a stalking-horse bidder did not change the court-approved timeline authorized by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. The one-week postponement is the first change to that timeline, and it was the receiver, not a bidder, who asked for it.
What happens next is the November 8 qualified-bid deadline, followed by the November 10 auction and the November 16 sale hearing before Judge Fleming. NewsForce247 will report the outcome when the court process produces one.
Photo: Ryan, CC BY 2.0