ITEM FILE PHOTO
The former Daily Item building is pictured in this file photo.
By THOMAS GRILLO
LYNN — Months after a global real estate company tried to sell the former Daily Item building without success, the property is up for auction.
CBRE/New England has scheduled an online sale for the five-story downtown building on March 27. The starting bid is $300,000.
This is the second time in two years that the 35,000-square-foot property has been on the auction block.
US-1 Ventures bought the flatiron-style building at auction in 2015 for $880,000 with plans to invest $12 million to transform the property into 24 luxury apartments with ground floor commercial space. The property is assessed at $835,600, according to city records.
But last fall, after the Winchester-based firm was unable to secure a tenant for the 5,000-square-foot first floor space, they abandoned the project and listed the property with CBRE for $1.5 million. Today, the landmark building remains unsold.
“Built in 1900, this iconic flatiron-styled structure served as the headquarters for The Daily Item, housing the newspaper’s printing production, executive suites, sales and operations,” according to the listing sheet. “Today the building is vacant and offers investors, owners and developers a myriad of exciting restoration, adaptive reuse and development options. Located across the street from the MBTA Commuter Rail’s Central Square Station, the property presents tremendous transit-oriented redevelopment potential.”
Ten-X, a California-based online auction house, is conducting the transaction. The seller has an undisclosed reserve price and the transaction fee is 5 percent of the winning bid with a minimum of $40,000.
Christine Diarbakerly, founder of US-1 Ventures, did not return a call seeking comment.
Taidgh McClory, a CBRE managing director, said the firm ran a marketing campaign last fall that generated multiple offers of in excess of $1 million.
“Based on that activity, we decided to launch the auction and our expectation is that it will net increased interest and higher offers,” he said.
Joseph Mulligan, a fellow at MassDevelopment, the state’s economic development and finance agency, who has been working to improve Lynn’s downtown, said it appears the owners were unable to achieve their desired sale price and are pursuing an auction strategy.
“We look forward to working with whomever might be interested in buying the property and repurposing it,” he said.
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Thomas Grillo can be reached at [email protected].
