Philly Archdiocese real estate sale raises $995,000

A real estate auction held Wednesday for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and several of its parishes had mixed results.

The sale run by Max Spann Real Estate & Auction Co. raised $995,000 for parishes in Philadelphia and Montgomery County, including $330,000 for the former St. Michael Business School near Second and Jefferson Streets in Kensington.

Msgr. John J. Miller, parochial administrator for St. Michael Parish, said he was pleased with the price and said the parish, which was founded in 1831 by the first wave of Irish immigrants, would use the money for repairs on other buildings it owns.

"We have a great number of very old buildings," said Miller, whose responsibilities include a worship site at Immaculate Conception Church at Front and Allen Streets.

The auction was part of a broad strategy by the archdiocese to stop running deficits in its day-to-day operations and fill massive long-term financial holes, including $82 million owed to the archdiocesan trust-and-loan fund.

Church officials have estimated that the deficit for the current fiscal year, ending next June, will be less than $5 million.

Before the auction started, a deal was reached on 48 acres of open residential land in Plumstead, Bucks County, being sold by the archdiocese itself. The price was $850,000 in cash, church spokesman Ken Gavin said.

Gavin said he was not sure what the buyer planned to do with the land. The money will go into the church's general fund to pay expenses, he said.

Archdiocesan officials rejected Wednesday's high bid of $295,000 for 29 acres near Harleysville, owned by the archdiocese, because it was too far below the appraised value of $625,000, Gavin said.

Maximillian M. Spann Jr., president and chief executive of the auction company, said a possible sale of the Harleysville property, which is zoned for commercial uses, remained under negotiation.

The same was true of the former All Saints School and Convent in the Bridesburg section, Spann said.

During the auction, bids on that property, whose market value according to the Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment is $3.2 million, did not go beyond an initial $75,000 bid.

Bids totaling $340,000 were accepted for two other parish buildings.

The auction took place in a second-floor conference room at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown, across 17th Street from the archdiocesan Pastoral Center.

A jazz guitar and bass duo greeted potential bidders as they entered the room. The elder Max Spann did his best to lighten the mood by leading the crowd in exercises to get their arms warmed up.

But the crowd was all business. It thinned as the auctioneer rattled through the properties, showing that people had interest only in specific properties.

A one-acre residential building lot owned by St. Hilary of Poitiers Parish in Rydal generated the longest period of bidding.

Starting at $75,000, the bidding went all the way to $325,000. The Rev. Kevin P. Murray, pastor at the parish, did not return telephone calls for comment.

Kathi Colletti, director of sales for Sal Paone Builder in Spring House, was not surprised to hear that price for an area where some houses are selling for more than $1 million.

"It's not really a lot of money in that area. It's a high-priced area," Colletti said.