The land under this Priest Lake house sold for $1.025 million in an Idaho Department of Lands auction. Image courtesy of Idaho Department of Lands.
In the hot Idaho housing market, five state-owned lakefront cottage lots had competitive bids at the Aug. 24-25 auction in Coeur d’Alene for 51 lots at Priest Lake, most with privately owned homes.
The auction brought in $25.6 million. Competitive bidding took the total $625,500 above the appraised value for all the auctioned properties owned by the Idaho Department of Lands in Coolin near the southern tip of Priest Lake.
A 1.6-acre lot on Cape Horn Road sold for $1.025 million, $415,000 above the appraised value. The auctions do not include the homes, which are sold separately if the homeowner does not win an auction.
These auctions at Priest and Payette Lakes – 15 since 2011 – generally have homeowners bidding the appraised value of the lot their homes sit on with no competitive bids to acquire ownership of the land.
This Priest Lake auction had the most lots with competitive bids of any Priest or Payette lakes state auction. Priest Lake also had winning bids for four lots from bidders who did not own the homes on the lots.
“It’s the market driving the competition,” IDL spokeswoman Emily Callahan said. “I don’t think it’s anything but the market.”
Cottage owners did win three of the lots with competitive bids but they had to pay $36,000, $26,500, and $11,000 more than the appraised value.
The Idaho Department of Lands overall has sold 393 cottages sites for a cumulative $177,503,065.
These are endowment trust land held on behalf of beneficiaries, including public schools, State Hospital South and teacher education programs at Idaho State University and Lewis-Clark State College, which are entitled to the money raised in trust land sales.
This small parking lot at 401 Bannock St. was one of three similarly small parking lots sold for a combined $1.59 million at a state auction. Photo by Teya Vitu.
Diamond Parking put in a winning bid of $1.59 million for three downtown Boise parking lots with a combined 54 spaces in a Dec. 6 auction of several state-owned commercial properties. The lots add up to just .41 acre.
Diamond Parking sparred with three other bidders for more than an hour, driving up the price from the appraised value of $920,000 in an auction of 10 properties in Boise, Meridian and Idaho Falls. The properties are owned by the Idaho Department of Lands.
The auction’s top-dollar item was a 32,128-square-foot office building on 3.14 acres in Idaho Falls occupied by Battelle Energy. It sold for $5.3 million to Gary Voigt of GL Voigt Development in Idaho Falls.
The same property garnered no bids in a similar 2016 auction, where the appraised value, which serves as the minimum bid, was $6.1 million. The building at 595 University Boulevard was recently reappraised at $5.1 million.
The state-owned Battelle Energy building in Idaho Falls sold at auction for $5.3 million. Photo courtesy of Thornton Oliver Keller.
“The appraised value last year was high,” said Michael Ballantyne, managing partner at Thornton Oliver Keller and bidder on behalf of Voigt. “Gary has property in the area. He is from Idaho Falls and believes in Idaho Falls.”
The state netted $8.49 million from the five properties that sold. The auction was held at the Courtyard Marriott Meridian Hotel and staged by Downs Auction Service of Eagle.
Five properties got no bids. This included four neighboring lots of undeveloped land on Watertower Street in Meridian and a used car lot on Lincoln Road in Idaho Falls that also attracted no bids in the 2016 auction.
The centerpiece of the auction were three small surface parking lots near each other on the east side of downtown Boise. The parking lots at 211 N. Fifth St., 401 W. Bannock St. and 417 W. Jefferson St. were offered in a multi-parcel auction, where bids were made on individual lots and also on pairs of lots and all three lots combined.
The individual lots have between 16 and 24 parking spaces and each sit on .13 or .14 acre.
The Diamond Parking bid of $1.59 million for all three lots superseded all other bids.
“It’s the high end (of acceptable price), but they’ll be fine,” said Dan Geiger, vice president of Diamond Parking’s Spokane region, which includes Boise. Seattle-based Diamond Parking operates parking lots in 40 cities.
Diamond Parking is among the three largest parking operators in downtown Boise, along with the Capital City Development Corp. and The Car Park. Diamond Parking operates 15 parking lots with 1,600 spaces on leased property in Boise, but these are the first lots in Boise that Diamond Parking will own, Geiger said.
He said Diamond Parking will continue operating the lots for parking, but development would be considered.
“We’re happy to have a developer build something,” Geiger said.
The auction proceeds are distributed to designated beneficiaries including teacher education programs at Idaho State University and Lewis-Clark State College, the State Hospital South Fund (in Blackfoot) and the University of Idaho Fund. The overall take was $1.585 million above the appraised price of the properties.
State Hospital South Fund will receive 51 percent of the parking lot sales and ISU/LCSC teacher programs will get 49 percent.
The University of Idaho fund will get 77.8 percent of the Battelle Energy sale and the ISU/LCSC will receive 22.2 percent.
The only other property that sold at the auction was at 590 W. Washington St. in Boise. Ninety-six percent of the sale proceeds from that building will go to the University of Idaho fund, and 4 percent will go to the Hospital South fund.
The Idaho Farm Bureau at auction bought this Washington Street office two properties over from the farm bureau office. Image courtesy of Thornton Oliver Keller.
The Idaho Farm Bureau placed a winning bid of $1.6 million on the 5,326-square-foot, one-story office building at 590 W. Washington St., where Travis Jeffries accounting firm is the only tenant.
The bureau’s office is at the other end of the same block, and the bureau had previously bought the neighboring property. This auction purchase results in bureau ownership of the full block of Washington between Fifth and Sixth streets, said John Thompson, public relations director at the Idaho Farm Bureau.
The Idaho Constitution requires a public auction to sell state endowment trust lands owned by the Idaho Department of Lands. The minimum allowed bid is the appraised value.
The office building at 590 W. Washington St. is one of 10 state-owned properties that the Idaho Department of Lands plans to auction in December. Photo courtesy of Thornton Oliver Keller Commercial Real Estate.
The Idaho Department of Lands will auction off 10 state-owned commercial properties some time in December at the Courtyard Marriott in Meridian, according to a news release.
This is the second auction of state-owned commercial property after the State Board of Land Commissioners (Land Board) in February 2016 decided to sell several commercial properties to cash in on local commercial real estate market increases.
A December 2016 auction netted $17.265 million from the sale of seven properties, including the Central Washington Place building and 10 Barrel Brewing/Garro Building properties.
“We were able to take advantage of a strong commercial market last year resulting in a successful auction bringing in $4.5 million more than the appraised value,” Lands spokeswoman Sharla Arledge told the Idaho Business Review. “The market remains strong and we are optimistic about December’s auction.”
The estimated appraised value of all 10 properties combined is between $8 million and $10 million, Arledge said.
The properties to be auctioned include:
* A one-story, 5,326-square-foot office building at 590 W. Washington St., in Boise, where Travis Jeffries Public Accountants is the tenant.
* A one-story, 32,138-square-foot office building at 595 University Blvd. in Idaho Falls, where Battelle Energy is the tenant.
* The Auto Image used car dealership property at 961-965 E. Lincoln Rd. in Idaho Falls, a property that did not sell at the December 2016 auction.
* Three downtown Boise surface parking lots at 211 N. Fifth St., 401 W. Bannock St. and 417 W. Jefferson St.
* Four neighboring, undeveloped commercial building lots at 800, 860, 920, 970 E. Watertower St. at Stratford Drive in Meridian with a combined 3.546 acres. These parcels will be auctioned individually and with multiple lots combined.
The owner of this 2,689-square-foot, five bedroom, four bath cottage was the only bidder on the state-owned land beneath the building. Photo courtesy of Idaho Department of Lands.
The latest auction of state-owned lakefront lots yielded $7,895,500.
As typically happens, the cottage owners at the June 23 auction in Boise were the only bidders on 12 of the 14 Payette Lake lots. Their bids were the same as the appraised values of the state-owned land beneath their homes.
One cottage owner was outbid and must sell the residence and other improvements at the appraised value to the winning bidder. Another cottage owner did not wish to purchase the land. Bidding added $45,500 to the appraised value of that property, Idaho Department of Lands spokeswoman Sharla Arledge said.
The Idaho Department of Lands has held six auctions for Payette Lake cottage lots since October 2013. To date, 131 state-owned lots have been sold and five Payette Lake cottage owners have been outbid for the land underneath their dwellings.
The highest auctioned lot June 23 was for $1.3 million.
The State Board of Land Commissioners in 2010 decided to divest the state’s ownership by 2019 of 523 lots around Payette and Priest lakes that are considered state endowment trust lands. The nearly $7.9 million from the June 23 auction will go into the endowment funds that supports State Hospital South and teacher education programs at Idaho State University and Lewis-Clark State College, Arledge said.
Five auctions at Priest Lake have sold 145 lots. The 276 cottage site sale have generated $120.2 million, according to a news release.
These 7.93 acres in front of the Overland Post Office on Federal Way sold at auction June 21 for nearly $1.9 million. Photo by Teya Vitu
An unnamed bidder placed a winning bid of $1,893,750 June 21 on 7.93 acres of undeveloped land on Federal Way in front of the Overland Post Office.
The winning bidder outlasted CBH Homes President and owner Corey Barton, who threw in the towel at $1.85 million. Barton and the winning bidder dueled one-to-one after a third bidder dropped out at $1.4 million, except for a single $1.65 million bid from Boise developer Dean Papé.
“I’m not that in love with it,” Barton said after the auction. “It just got too high.”
Several high-profile attendees could not identify the winning bidder, who declined to give his name to the Idaho Business Review. He retreated to grab a cookie when bidding reached $1.625 million and took off his glasses to consider raising from $1.7 million, while Barton conferred at length with his team when bidding returned to him.
The property is assessed at $989,600 by the Ada County Assessor and bidding started at $200,000. Corbett Bottles Real Estate Auctions staged a no reserve auction with no minimum bid for a parcel that included the land and complete architectural plans for a 196-unit complex marketed as Skyline Apartments.
The plans by TAO Architects were approved by the city in 2015 and a building permit was issued, but construction never started and the permit expired. No explanation was given as to why the apartments were not built nor why no minimum bid was required.
Corbett Bottles guaranteed that if resubmitted, the plans would get a new conditional use permit or the winning bidder could back out.
Neither the winning bidder nor Barton bid on the land specifically to build the Skyline Apartments.
“I don’t know. We’ll see,” the winning bidder said about the Skyline Apartments. “Maybe I’ll do a mobile home park. We’ll see.”
About 60 people showed up for the auction at the Waters Edge Event Center in Eagle, but no more than five put in bids.
The Assessor’s Office lists the property owner as Citadel Storage. The property sits between Federal Way and the post office at 2120 S. Hudson Ave. and wraps around one side of the post office.
The land in front of the Overland Post Office on Federal Way (rear) will be auctioned off with architectural plans for 196 apartments. Photo by Teya Vitu.
A million-dollar property on Federal Way with architectural plans for a 196-unit apartment complex will be auctioned June 21.
The 7.93-acre vacant lot in front of the Overland Post Office has an assessed value of $968,900, according to the Ada County Assessor’s Office. But the auction flyer states there is no reserve and the property will be “selling to the highest bidder regardless of price.”
Developer Jim Conger with DevCo and Conger Management Group, a land development consultant company, submitted plans in 2015 to Boise Planning & Development Services for a 196-unit apartment complex for that property, but building permits issued by the city have since expired. The Assessor’s Office lists the property owner as Citadel Storage.
The auction is scheduled for 1 p.m. June 21 at the Waters Edge Event Center, 287 E. Shore Drive, in Eagle. Corbett Bottles Real Estate Auctions is conducting the auction.
The property sits between Federal Way and the post office at 2120 S. Hudson Ave. and wraps around one side of the post office.
TAO Architects of Boise completed designs and construction plans for a 196-unit Skyline Apartments for that property. The design includes 192 car ports, bike storage, a large clubhouse with meeting facilities and a large gathering area with a fireplace, and numerous outdoor amenities, according to the auction listing.
Lead engineering was done by Conger Management Group. Land West Studio is the landscape architect.
“You are getting the plans and all the drawings,” said Mark Bottles, broker at Corbett Bottles Real Estate Auctions and Mark Bottles Real Estate Services. “It’s an absolute auction, no minimum bids, no reserve.”
Bottles did not have a response for why a property assessed at $986,900 was being auctioned with no minimum bid.
Bottles said DevCo and Conger Management Group arranged to have the Skyline Apartments designed and took the project through the permitting process at City Hall in 2015 but did not plan to build the apartments. No general contractor was listed in the 2015 city documents.
Three in a row: The state-owned 10 Barrel Brewing building and the neighboring parking lot and Garro Building will be auctioned Dec. 1 along with a few other Boise and Idaho Falls commercial buildings. Photo by Teya Vitu.
The state-owned building that houses 10 Barrel Brewing in downtown Boise will go on the auction block Dec. 1, as will eight other state-owned commercial buildings in downtown Boise and Idaho Falls.
As with state-owned cottage properties at Payette and Priest Lakes, the Idaho Department of Lands is considering divesting itself of 19 commercial properties now and in 2017 that are classified as state endowment trust lands.
The Dec. 1 auction will start at 1 p.m. at the Courtyard Marriott Meridian Hotel, 1789 S. Eagle Road, in Meridian. Thornton Oliver Keller Commercial Real Estate is serving as the state’s broker.
The combined appraised value for the properties is $20.03 million. The minimum bid on each property is the appraised value, Idaho Department of Lands spokeswoman Sharla Arledge said.
The auction involves three adjoining properties on Bannock Street that include 10 Barrel Brewing (Sherm Perry Building; appraised value $1.81 million), the Garro building ($2.41 million) and the parking lot between those two ($325,000); a former bank building at 800 W. State St. ($830,000); Central Washington Place, 602 N. Fifth St. ($4.185 million); Affordable Storage, 448-450 S. Maple Grove Rd. ($3.01 million); commercial buildings ($1.14 million) and a commercial lot ($220,000) on the 900 block of East Lincoln Road in Idaho Falls; and an office building ($6.1 million) on University Boulevard in Idaho Falls.
The State Board of Land Commissioners in May approved a strategic investment plan to consider reinvesting money gained from commercial and lake cottage properties in timberland and, potentially, some farmland. The Land Board in February had approved auctioning most state-owned commercial properties managed by Idaho Department of Lands, Alredge said.
The Land Department acquired the 19 commercial properties between 1993 and 2012. Many were acquired in the 1990s as Payette Lake cottage owners exchanged downtown Boise properties they owned for ownership of the state-owned land they leased under their cottages, Alredge said.
These lands were granted by Congress to Idaho at the time of statehood as endowment trust land held on behalf of beneficiaries, primarily public schools.
The state is selling these commercial properties and the cottage lots at the lakes to maximize the long-term financial returns for the endowment trust lands, Arledge said.
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