Photo by Howard Owens
City officials seemed pleased with the results of Thursday’s auction for the abandoned JC Penney’s site at 40 Batavia City Centre.
Such a mortgage foreclosure auction was a first for Batavia Development Corp. Executive Director Tammy Hathaway, she said, noting that it was “pretty interesting.”
Photo by Joanne Beck
“It went rather quickly. I took the public notice, and I did an email blast to all of the developers that we work with, but also the developers that we invite on our tours and to participate in the knowledge of what’s going on economically throughout Batavia,” she said at the second-floor waiting area of Genesee County Courts Facility. “There’s probably five or six individuals here today that have actually, I’ve personally walked through the building because it was listed with a real estate agent.”
Although the lobby was full of people — some there for court matters and others for the auction — only two active bidders stepped out from the group. Batavia business owner Matt Gray opened the action with a $2,000 bid, and the bank, represented by Ted Kwiatowski of Smart Serve, countered with $3,000. Gray then offered $25,000, and was upped by the bank to $26,000.
Gray and the bank went from $100,000 to $101,000, countered by new bidder Bill Baskin with $102,000. Gray then bid $125,000, countered by Baskin for $150,000. Gray offered $175,000, and after going one, two, three times, the auction was closed, with Gray getting the property — assessed at $400,000 — for a final bid of $175,000.
Hathaway talked excitedly about what her dream scenario would be for the site while Gray, Kwiatowski and legal representative Michael Ranzenhofer went to take care of paperwork.
Her vision is some type of live musical and entertainment venue with housing and apartments on the third and fourth floors, she said. As for who has purchased the property, she believes it is now in good hands.
“I mean, Matty is successful in his endeavors; he’s proven that. So I could not even find a complaint if I wanted to,” she said. “I took a phone call this morning from a developer that works in Syracuse that is very familiar with the area and had one who was looking at purchasing the Harvester campus, and he called this morning, and he’s like, I can’t be there at the auction but please, the second you know who purchases it, let us know. Because he’s like, I have a group of individuals, from developers to a whole variety of folks who are interested in having the conversation with whoever does purchase it.
“So creating that network, that’s really what it’s about,” she said. “So here’s a plan, how do we put the plan in action?”
Gray said that he bought the property on behalf of longtime business partner Matthew Boyd and himself. At first blush, he said nothing has been discussed, though “there’s a lot of possibilities.”
“I think you guys already know what I like. I like a vibrant downtown. I like city living. I love residential above our commercial,” he said. “As far as that building goes, it's been a vacant hole in our downtown, and it needs to have something there. So it was just a way of moving the ball forward.”
He will be working with Hathaway and is excited about the acquisition, he said.
The property has been vacant since Penney’s closed in the fall of 2020 and was purchased by California developer Yong Guang Ye in February 2021 for $500,000. Ye defaulted on payments, owing more than $179,000, and the property was put up for mortgage foreclosure by the out-of-state lending bank.
