A tangible remnant of Adelphia goes on the auction block

COUDERSPORT, Pa. - Tinted three-story windows and a gleaming brick exterior surround the granite pillars that frame the front doors of 102 S. Main St. Two large black-and-yellow billboards on the front lawn have bold letters reading "Bankruptcy Auction."

One of the last big pieces of the Adelphia Communications empire is up for sale.

The property, with a suggested value of $30 million, stands out on an otherwise typical small-town street. It's a building more likely to be found among the sprawling office parks of the Philadelphia suburbs than this little north-central Pennsylvania city.

"It's 72,000 square feet of brass, bronze, brick, granite," said Todd Brown, Adelphia's director of facilities and fleet operations. "Basically it's the premier state-of-the-art building in Potter County."

There's quite a tale behind it, too.

In August, Adelphia founder John Rigas, 82, and his son and former chief financial officer Timothy Rigas, 51, began serving prison sentences in North Carolina for their role in the company's collapse. Both were convicted in 2004 on multiple charges of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and bank fraud.

Adelphia filed for bankruptcy in 2002 after disclosing $2.3 billion in off-balance-sheet debt. In May of that year, the Rigases left the company that John Rigas had built into one of the country's largest cable-television providers.

Adelphia has since moved to Greenwood Village, Colo. The company's cable assets were bought by Comcast Corp. in Philadelphia and Time Warner Cable, a unit of Time Warner Inc.

What's left of Adelphia must settle its considerable debts.

That's where the sale of the building, known among some locals as the "mausoleum" or "Taj Mahal," comes in.

The lobby, with a maple, black walnut and cherry parquet floor leads to the main elevator doors, made of polished brass. To the left of the lobby is a show library that doubles as the "trophy room" - bowling league awards won by employees line a shelf.

Dark cherry wood dominates the interior. Bathroom fixtures have polished brass fixtures.

The chief executive officer's office has its own kitchen and space for a coffee pot just within reach of the doorway separating the two rooms.

"John Rigas was known to appreciate a good cup of coffee," Brown said.

John Rigas never actually moved into the CEO's office. The building opened in early 2002, about the time Adelphia's legal woes began.

Now, a structure designed to house 275 of Adelphia's 1,600 employees is home to just 37 - a number that has slowly dwindled over the last several years.