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Deal Watch

Road Show Will Feature Foreclosed Properties

05/12/08

As the remnants of failed mortgages begin to pile up, companies are looking for opportunities beneath the wreckage.

That is evident by the Real Estate Investment Road Show scheduled for May 17 — a bus tour of several foreclosed properties in New Britain.

The free tour is a joint production between RE/MAX Precision Realty, New Britain-based McCue Mortgage, attorney Will Watson and Pillar to Post Home Inspections.

But the ride is more than just a glance at foreclosed properties. It is being billed as a classroom on wheels for investors.

“It’s going to be focused on investment properties, two-to-four-family homes,” said Gary Kulik, vice president of marketing for McCue Mortgage.

California Idea

It is a new venture for McCue Mortgage. Kulik said the idea is actually borrowed from California, where similar tours have become very popular.

“We had heard good things about these tours in California, where the foreclosure situation is a lot worse,” he said. “There are a lot of ramifications from foreclosures, and if too many properties remain out there, it hurts the market and lowers prices.”

It has been nearly a year since the number of foreclosures began to skyrocket, starting in Florida. Connecticut followed suit with a sharp increase beginning last fall, and foreclosure activity continues to run strong.

In March, the state had 2,126 properties with foreclosure filings, according to the latest RealtyTrac U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. That figure was up 40 percent from March 2007.

“The activity level is still up significantly from this time last year,” said James Saccacio, CEO of California-based Realty Trac. “The state’s unemployment rate jumped dramatically over the past year and is now above the national average. This is but one contributing factor to the overall rise in foreclosures we’re seeing.”

In Connecticut, one of every 674 households has received a foreclosure filing, a rate that put the state behind only 13 others in the country.

“It’s kind of a response to the foreclosures rising that we decided to go in this direction,” Kulik said of the bus tour. “The hope is to get more people informed and get these properties sold as soon as possible.”

As part of the tour’s education component, there will be experts on hand to discuss how to find foreclosure properties, the different types of investments and the best methods for evaluating foreclosed properties.

New Britain Steps In

The city of New Britain has completed the purchase of a Main Street property that may be knocked down to make way for a new police station.

Garden Main Street LLC, managed by Sam Halperin and located in New York, sold the building for $1.6 million to the city. The price is nearly double the $900,000 price Halperin paid for it in 2002.

Bill Carroll, business development coordinator for New Britain, said the building had become nearly completely vacant and was in poor condition.

“There were a few little stores in there, but it was mostly empty,” he said. “The goal was to buy the property and build a new police station there that has already been approved.” With the first step complete, the city will now start the process of building the police station.

Enterprising Sale

The Enterprise Grove Building in New Britain, located at 1 Grove St., was sold in April for $8.2 million.

The office building is home to a variety of companies and organizations, including the Connecticut offices of U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy, a Democrat representing the state’s fifth district.

The Empire Development Group, based in Waterbury, sold the property to the joint venture of 4702 2nd Avenue Corp. and 101 53rd Street Co. LLC, both of which have Abraham Jeremias of Brooklyn, N.Y., listed as the principal.

Sean O’Leary is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.