Auction Block

Lured by the prospect of bargains near Baltimore's "Gold Coast," hundreds of bidders and gawkers descended on Fells Point yesterday to vie for two dozen new town houses that went on the auction block after Maryland National Bank foreclosed on their builder.Winning bids ranged from $75,000 to $98,500 for two- and three-story Washington Square town houses, which were originally priced from $135,000 to $145,000. All 24 were gone in less than an hour.And judging by the mob scene, the auctioneers could have sold five times as many houses if they had them.

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow should be a factor today, when the Greenspring Valley estate of Orioles owner Eli Jacobs hits the auction block at 11 a.m. The lenders hired Raymond C. Nichols, president of Atlantic Auctions, commercial auctioneers and appraisers, to conduct a public auction of the property.In case you're curious, Jacobs paid $2.25 million for the 6-acre property at 10605 Brooklawn Road in Owings Mills. It's a brick house with 4,000 square feet of living space and a 1,200-square-foot basement that sits in the midst of trees and landscaping.

The Baltimore real estate market spoke in small dollars yesterday.More than 400 buyers showed up at the Stouffer Harborplace Hotel with certified checks and visions of deals as 45 luxury condominiums at the 11-story Colonnade on University Parkway went to the auction block at noon."

The former McCormick spice plant property, one of the last major undeveloped parcels near Baltimore's Inner Harbor, is headed back to the auction block. The 1.9-acre parcel at Light and Conway streets will be up for sale Jan. 11 in a foreclosure auction on the premises handled by GoIndustry DoveBid's offices in Owings Mills. An auction scheduled for Nov. 5 was canceled after the property owner, an affiliate of Philadelphia-based ARC Wheeler Equities, sought bankruptcy protection the day before.

In The Region Angelina's eatery of crab cake fame on the auction block Angelina's, a Northeast Baltimore restaurant known for its crab cakes, is going on the auction block at 1 p.m. April 25, according to Alex Cooper Auctioneers. The land, building, liquor license and recently remodeled restaurant at 7153 Harford Road all will be sold on the premises. The Italian and seafood restaurant, opened in 1952 in a rowhouse, has maintained its reputation in the city as a place to go for jumbo crab cakes through three sets of owners.

He buzzed around like a fly behind a windowpane. He could see daylight but no obvious way to break through or go around. He was frantic, panicked. His house was in foreclosure, and in a few minutes it would go on the auction block. Pacing and smoking outside the hulking Baltimore County Courthouse in Towson, 47-year-old Andre Green pleaded his case with just about everyone he saw on the concrete steps. "I'm here to stop this sale!" he declared to auctioneer Ron Osher. Green waved a last-minute agreement with GMAC that would let him pay the lender $1,250 a month - and keep his late mother's brick rancher on a quiet street near Reisterstown Road Plaza.

Real estate, real hype This is the time of year when over-the-top decorations scream "SEASON'S GREETINGS" along the 700 block of West 34th St. in Hampden. Along with the usual blinking lights, Santa Clauses and giant candy canes, a more understated sign stood in one yard recently. It read: "Open House." And it drew potential home-buyers like moths to an overloaded Christmas tree. "It was probably the biggest open house we ever had - 800, 1,000 people. We absolutely lost count," said real estate agent Mike Sloan.

Ernest Murphy was going with his entrepreneur's heart when he bought the storied Eager House restaurant building in 1992. But he turned to his economist's mind when he decided to put it on the auction block today. Murphy's dream of resurrecting the former restaurant icon did not go as planned. Reviews were good, but the economy was not. The Eager House, which opened in 1947, was often more successful with its menu than with its bottom line. It had experienced several lives when it closed in the early 1980s.

Auction at Belvedere is put on holdDon't hold your breath waiting for the auction of restaurant spaces at the old Belvedere Hotel tomorrow. It won't happen, the head of the restaurants says."