David Taber
PONDSIDE—The fate of the office building at 891 Centre St is still up in the air following a third delay of its scheduled foreclosure auction on Oct. 21.
The auction of the building—home to local non-profits the Union of Minority Neighborhoods (UMN) and the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, among others—has been rescheduled for Nov. 20, according to the auctioneer, Paul E. Saperstein Co.’s web site.
Since September, repeated efforts by the Gazette to contact John Judge, one of the owners of the property, and Dan Hart, a local developer who tenants say has been their main property management contact, have been unsuccessful. Judge took a job as head of economic development and community planning for the City of Springfield in June.
Building tenants also continue to express frustration about lack of communication from the owners. “All of us are treading water right now. We need to know what is going on,” UMN director Horace Small told the Gazette.
Small said that he is particularly concerned because UMN’s fiscal year ends Dec. 31. Not having a clear idea of the office’s fate is making it difficult to draw up an operating budget for next year, he said.
He said UMN is still looking at making an offer to buy the two-story office building and adjacent parking lot.
Prior to Judge’s purchase of the building in 2006, it was owned by the Boy Scouts of America.