Thursday’s planned auction of the leasehold interest in Union Station’s commercial space has been called off, according to a notice from the auctioneer.
Alex Cooper Auctioneers, in an email to prospective bidders Wednesday afternoon, said the sale has been canceled. No reason was given, and a representative for the Baltimore-based auctioneer declined to comment.
It’s not uncommon for the foreclosure sale of a large commercial real estate asset like the one that controls Union Station’s vast retail and office spaces to be called off on the eve of the sale. In some cases, it’s because the property’s owner filed for bankruptcy, triggering an automatic stay, or injunction, by the court. Another potential outcome, if the owner hasn’t found a way to emerge from default, is that the lenders that moved to foreclose on the property sold the debt to another party, making the loan someone else’s problem.
It’s unclear if any of those scenarios played out with Union Station Investco LLC, an affiliate of New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. The LLC had defaulted on a loan with an outstanding balance of $442.4 million, per a foreclosure notice filed Nov. 19 with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds.
