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Auction of Ponderosa Tract Yields $700,000
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The winning bid was $700,000 Tuesday at a sheriff’s auction of 68.37 acres of the former Ponderosa Park five miles north of Salem, far above the appraised value of the land that did not take into account the mineral rights.
The balance of the 114-acre property that once hosted some of the biggest names in country music -- including Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash -- will go on auction in May and sometime in 2014. So said the attorney managing the sale, Gary J. Rosati of the Zuzolo Law Office, Niles, before auctioneer Mary Guzzo began.
Equity Portfolio LLC Ltd. Warren, holder of the mortgage on the tract and a privately held company that specializes in collecting debts, outbid the two other parties in the Mahoning County commissioners hearing room.
Bidding began at $96,000, two-thirds of the $144,000 appraised value of the property, with Jerry Sutherin, vice president of operations at Equity Portfolio voicing that amount. It was quickly followed by $97,000 and $98,000.
“$108,000,” Sutherin responded.
“$109,000,” the other serious party countered.
“119,000,” Sutherin.
“120,000.”
And so the bids increased in $10,000 and $1,000 increments until Sutherin countered the other party’s $261,000 with $300,000, whereupon the bids came in $25,000 and $1,000 increments. The other serious contender waited for Guzzo to say, “Going once” at $500,000 before countering with $501,000. He again waited to hear “Going once” at $575,000, $625,000 and $650,000 before upping the bid by $1,000
At Sutherin’s $675,000, the other bidder waited for Guzzo to say, “Going once, going twice,” before coming back with $676,000.
At Sutherin’s $700,000, however, there was no counter and Guzzo ended the contest with “Sold!”
Interviewed afterward, Rosati speculated that Sutherin would have bid into the very low seven figures. Sutherin declined comment.
Sutherin also declined to say whether Equity Portfolio, mortgage holder on the other tract as well, expects to return in May.
“We have research to do,” and “We’ll pay the back taxes” of $97,420 was all he would say, except that he and his staff are “determining the [mineral rights] royalties” that will be paid Equity Portfolio once the company assumes title.
Just before the bidding was to begin, Rosati announced that only yesterday morning did lawyers realize the legal description of the tract nearest state Route 45, which the camp fronts, “is very old” and could be challenged. On that tract of some 45.5 acres is a guitar-shaped swimming pool, the auditorium on which a huge old tree collapsed and Red Garter Saloon.
The value of the property, Rosati suggested, are the oil and gas leases made all the more valuable with the proximity of the Utica shale. Some energy deposits are being recovered from the wells but he didn’t know how much. “You get owner’s rights,” he informed the prospective bidders. “You buy the property as is.”
He apologized for the delay until May but assured those in the room that getting the description right was more important than proceeding with an auction open to uncertainty.
As for the middle section of 38.5 acres subdivided into lots for campers, it will take two years to sort out who owns the lots, reaching them and locating the next of kin of those who might have died.
The taxes on these lots have not been paid since the mid 1980s, Rosati said, but the owners thought they had an understanding that Ponderosa Park & Resorts would pay any such taxes. Some deeds -- they number “more than 1,000” -- go back as far as 1962 and 1963, Rosati said. “We were going to leave [resolving] them to a later date anyway.”
Under the terms of the sheriff’s sale, Equity Portfolio presented a check of for 10% of the appraised value of $14,400 to Guzzo’s clerk and will pay the balance of the $700,000 within 30 days.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.