No buyer for Dundalk Village shopping center

First published Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024 in the Dundalk Eagle.

The results are in — and nobody won.

Bidding for 19, 41 and 63 Shipping Place, as well 18 Center Place and a building on Commerce Street in Dundalk’s historic town center started on Oct. 10 at noon and was scheduled to last until Oct. 15th at 1:00pm.

“The property did not sell at auction,” Justin Verner, the president of Harbor Stone Advisors and one of the people involved in the auction, wrote in an email. “We are still marketing for a bit.”

On Oct. 14, one bid came in at $5.5 million, but Verner said the offer was rejected because it didn’t meet the reserve price.

The shopping center was built in 1918, according to state records. It features almost 70,000 square feet of retail space and about 9,000 square feet of office space in addition to 67 apartments, a mix of studio, one-bedroom and a few two-bedroom apartments, according to the company managing the auction.

The listing suggested renovating the apartments with stainless steel appliance and granite countertops, which it said could net the new owners at least $200 more per month, and leasing to more tenants with housing vouchers “to further increase rents and gain certainty of rental income.”

Verner was working with Alex Cooper, the company managing the auction, according to the listing.

The Dunleer Company sold the complex to JMJ Dundalk Properties LLC for $3.7 million in 2005, state records show. Six years later in 2011, the records show, Dundalk Village Holding LLC bought the complex for $4.6 million.