The former Coleman Suzuki automobile dealership at 1060 Spruce St., which had been slated to become part of the site for a proposed Walmart store, was sold for $550,000 Tuesday afternoon, shortly after a real es
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
The former Coleman Suzuki automobile dealership at 1060 Spruce St., which had been slated to become part of the site for a proposed Walmart store, was sold for $550,000 Tuesday afternoon, shortly after a real estate auction that drew no bids for it.
The buyer preferred not to be identified, said Robert Dann, executive vice president for the Max Spann Real Estate and Auction Co., which conducted the real estate auction at a hotel in South Brunswick Township.
The unnamed buyer is not certain of his plans for the property, Mr. Dann said.
Earlier in the afternoon, auctioneer Joseph Bodnar tried to sell the property. He started bidding at $1.5 million, but the price dropped by $100,000 increments until it reached $600,000.
”Oh my goodness, Max,” Mr. Bodnar said as he glanced over at Max Spann Jr., the president and chief executive officer of the company bearing his name.
Mr. Bodnar tried to coax a $600,000 bid, but there were no takers. After a few attempts — “We need $600,000 to get it going. This is the last call for $600,000” — he concluded the auction. That’s when the buyer and the real estate company began negotiations for the sale.
The $550,000 sale price is less than the $760,000 assessed value on the parcel for property tax purposes. The property, which is owned by Coleman Realty Co., was slated to become part of the site of a proposed Walmart store several years ago.
The 11.7-acre parcel, which contains a 23,500-square-foot former showroom and service building and a 6,500-square-foot former service building, has been vacant for at least a decade.
The land is zoned Highway Commercial, which permits shopping centers, retail sales, restaurants, bars and taverns, department stores, indoor recreational facilities, new-car dealerships and governmental uses, according to the Lawrence Township Land Use Ordinance.
The auctioneer pointed out in promotional material that the Spruce Street site is “perfect for a restaurant, catering hall, department store, professional office complex, theater and banks.” It is located near Home Depot, Home Goods, Rite Aid, and the Aldi and ShopRite grocery stores — all in Ewing Township.
The parcel at 1060 Spruce St. was going to be combined with the adjacent property at 1100 Spruce St. — also a former automobile dealership — for a Walmart store in a controversial application before the Lawrence Township Planning Board that was proposed in 2004.
Walmart eventually gained the Planning Board’s approval to build a 143,233-square-foot building on the combined 23.5-acre site in August 2007, despite stiff opposition from neighbors and residents of Lawrence and Ewing townships and the City of Trenton.
The opponents, who banded together to form Let’s Stop Wal-Mart, sued the Planning Board over its approval of the application.
A Mercer County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the Planning Board, but sent the application back to the board to reconsider one condition of its approval — the stipulation that Walmart would build a foot bridge across the Shabankunk Creek and a mulch trail.
The Planning Board agreed to drop the condition, but Walmart decided to pull the plug on the planned store in February 2008. The company announced it was withdrawing from the Lawrence Township site, citing a “shift in the company’s growth strategy.”