SouthsideCentral told you late last night that Danville’s Industrial Development Authority was going to buy some River District properties at a bankruptcy auction today. That didn’t happen as planned, but they sure as heck tried. Let’s take a comprehensive look at what did happen today.
We arrived at the auction site around 11:30AM when registration started.
(Auction company photo, arrow graphic added by SouthsideCentral)
The rules of the auction say that the 701 Loyal Street part of the property will be sold first (as Tract #1). That part is currently leased to a tenant through 2024 at $900 per month. Whoever buys that property will have to honor that lease, but that’s not a bad thing as the property will be generating income. The rest of the property will be auctioned off as Tract #2. After those two auctions are done, the auction company will add the prices of Tract #1 & #2, add $5000 to it and that’s the starting bid for the whole piece of the property. In other words, someone will be the high bidder on Tract #1 by itself, someone will be the high bidder for Tract #2 by itself but that doesn’t mean that they will win the properties. If someone buys the whole property (Tract #3) and the combined price is more than the individual prices, it’s pretty likely that the bankruptcy court will take the highest bid that is for everything.
Since this a bankruptcy auction, the bankruptcy court has to make the final approval of the winning bid. If the winning bid was not a fair market value for the property, the court could say “No Sale” and the sale process moves along to another avenue. That’s not going to happen here.
As we get closer to 12:30 PM, the serious bidders have already registered and have their bidder number and card. We’ve got William Gentry, Charles Womack, Rick Barker, Madison Whittle and Assistant City Attorney Cory Wolfe representing Danville’s Industrial Development Authority.
Rick Barker registers as a bidder.
Assistant City Attorney Cory Wolfe is representing and bidding for Danville’s Industrial Development Authority.
Torrance, Read & Forehand (TRF) Auctions from Forest is running things today and they’re good at what they do. They’re very friendly and very willing to explain today’s process to everybody who had questions.
Here’s the board with all of the legal information, such as the existing lease contract, the high bidder’s contract and tax information.
TRF Auctions also had promotional material on the other auctions that they do.
More of TRF’s other auction types.
We’re about ready to get underway…
William Gentry, Robert Brooks and Rick Barker talk outside.
Madison Whittle, Charles Womack & Cory Wolfe are ready to go. Richard Bailey knows his auctions and is right behind them.
Mike Torrance is the “host” of today’s show and he gets things underway at precisely 12:30 PM.
Mike Torrence goes over the format and the rules.
Let’s get the auction started. Tract #1 sells for $65,000 (which is relatively low considering that there is a tenant locked in through 2024 that pays $900 a month). The IDA (through Cory Wolfe) has no interest in that part of the building by itself. Tract #2 has IDA interest and they have the high bid. None of those high bids are really going to matter as it’s time to auction off the entire property as Tract #3.
The starting bid was around $220,000 and the IDA starts with that. William Gentry immediately locks in $225,000 and the race is on. Every time the IDA goes up by $5,000, William Gentry does the same and we go past the $250,000 mark quickly. The IDA continues to raise the bids up to $290,000 and Gentry has no hesitation in bidding $295,000. IDA representative Cory Wolfe doesn’t make the next stairstep bid to $300,000 and the bidding comes to a halt. Going once, going twice, and that’s it. William Gentry has the high bid at $295,000.
William Gentry made a statement with his bidding. He wasn’t going to get beat by the IDA no matter what it took. The IDA and Danville’s Economic Development office had came up with their maximum bid and once that was hit, they dropped out of the auction to avoid a bidding war that Gentry had no problem in fighting. The IDA has said “No Sale” to properties that they own that Gentry has wanted to buy in the past, and let’s face it. William Gentry has the money to buy properties and the business expertise to make things happen.
Danville’s Industrial Development Authority was in the process of setting a new precedent today in actively bidding against private citizens for commercial real estate property. William Gentry made his own precedent in making sure that didn’t happen, no matter the cost. I’ve always liked Gentry’s style and business acumen. Today. he was the man to roadblock today’s questionable decision by the IDA to actively buy this property. Let’s see what happens the next time this situation arises and whether Gentry has sent a message to the IDA.
And there you have it, folks. A very interesting end to a very interesting situation. And you’ve just read the full details of what happened here… only on SouthsideCentral.
I appreciate the “blow – by – blow” Good reporting! And good for William Gentry.
Bruce; call me (edited out for privacy concerns)
Not sure how all this bankruptcy stuff works, but who was the major creditor in this.
I have no idea on that.