Alden Park Towers is off the auction block.
News Hits reported last month that the 88-year-old apartment buildings, located along Detroit’s waterfront northeast of Belle Isle, were set to be auctioned off after owners Saperstein and Associates defaulted on their mortgage (“Defawlty towers,” Metro Times, July 6, 2005).
The auction set for Aug. 18 was canceled at the eleventh hour when the Bingham Farms-based firm paid up, HUD spokeswoman Patricia Campbell says.
Saperstein and Associates, of which Lee Saperstein is the managing partner, owed $3 million on the 40-year mortgage. Saperstein attorney Mort Noveck says he’s not sure how much the firm had to pay to bring the mortgage current.
The most recent true cash value of the property, from 2002, is listed on the city of Detroit’s Web site as $3.2 million. Saperstein purchased the property in 1971 for $6.5 million with a 40-year HUD-insured mortgage. Insuring mortgages to foster development is one of HUD’s functions, Campbell has said.
Alden Park Towers started heading toward default in December 2001, Campbell said last month. When a HUD-insured property goes into foreclosure, the department can auction it to recoup some of the losses.
Noveck had said that fixing up the historic buildings, which show some wear and tear, would cost more than $20 million. The cost of rehabbing the apartments and the difficulties of finding a buyer prompted Saperstein to go into default, Noveck said previously.
News Hits called Noveck again to find out what’s up, but he wouldn’t say what Saperstein’s plans are for Alden Park Towers. But he promises that details will be forthcoming.
“Soon we hope to have an announcement about the future of the buildings,” Noveck says.
News Hits is edited by Curt Guyette. Contact the column at [email protected] or
