On one day in October, at least eight vacant parcels and eight buildings in Nashville — including the homes of 25 downtown shops — will go on the auction block.
In terms of number of properties, it’s likely to be the largest real estate transfer in the history of Nashville.
The properties are part of the estate of Frank “Andy” Rogers, who was a bedrock of Nashville’s business community. When he died last summer, his extensive real estate holdings passed to his heirs, who have been preparing for this sale and organizing a series of other auctions of his assets over the past several months.
The “real estate liquidation auction” will take place Wednesday, Oct. 30 at the Brown County History Center in Nashville. Bids will be taken live in person, as well as over the phone and internet, said Tim Ellis, who is conducting the auction with Jimmie Dean Coffey.
One notable property is not on the list to be auctioned: The Nashville House restaurant complex at the corner of Main and Van Buren streets. The restaurant, in operation for 91 years, was shuttered last fall.
“It’s going to one of the heirs, so it’s not part of our sale,” Ellis said, “and as far as I know, that’s not going to change.”
Rogers’ daughters did not return a message seeking comment on the future of The Nashville House or their hopes for any properties in the auction before deadline.
Ellis did not want to share an approximate dollar value of all the properties on the sale list, but estimated that they represented “about 35 percent of downtown Nashville.”
Based on their property cards posted on the county’s GIS map, their assessed value for tax purposes is about $3.4 million altogether.
On the list
The auction list includes 16 property groups. Among them are several recognizable buildings in downtown Nashville that are home to some landmark shops:
the historic Bartley House at Van Buren and Franklin streets;
the historic Old Franklin House and all the buildings in Antique Alley at Franklin and Jefferson streets;
the building that houses the Totem Post, Jack & Jill Nut Shoppe and September Elm on South Van Buren Street;
the building that houses 58 South women’s clothing shop next to the Brown County Playhouse on South Van Buren;
the “Franklin Complex” at Van Buren and Franklin, home of Rhonda Kay’s, Male Instinct, August Moon, Quintessence Gallery, Fearrin’s Ice Cream & Yogurt Depot, Cedar Creek Winery, Cathy’s Corner, Lawrence Family Glass Blowers and the Vintage Rose; and
the Professional Building at the corner of Main and Van Buren at the courthouse stoplight.
The auction also will include Rogers’ home and the 56.53 acres it sits on at 1527 Jackson Branch Ridge Road, as well as 59.7 wooded acres between Jackson Branch Ridge Road and State Road 135 North offered separately.
An 855-square-foot log cabin at 108 Town Hill Road, on about a half-acre, also will be auctioned. According to the listing on the auction company’s website, it is being used as a rental and has no septic system or sewer connection, just a holding tank.
Seven lots with no buildings on them also are on the list:
a small parking lot on Old School Way behind the Cornerstone Inn;
a half-acre parking lot on Honeysuckle Lane behind the Big Woods Pizza building;
two diagonally connected lots with access to East Main Street, one of which is being used as a parking lot behind Trilogy Gallery and Redbud Terrace, and the other at the corner of Main and Commercial streets;
two wooded lots on State Road 135 North north of the Brown County Community Foundation building; and
a wooded, 1-acre lot in the Oak Run Drive neighborhood, an offshoot of Artist Drive.
“The list is long,” Ellis said, but this is not the most extensive estate auction he and Coffey have done; a few years ago they sold 35 properties from an estate in Bedford.
“It just happens. Sometimes, estates find it better to sell everything at one time and be done with it. That’s the plan here,” Ellis said.
How it will go
The properties in the sale are listed, with tax information, rental income, pictures and other data, on the auction company’s website, ucpropertyauction.com.
Bidders interested in seeing them in person can attend a prview at 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14. Private appointments also can be made.
One thing that’s “a little different” about this auction is that bidders will not be able to purchase only a part of a parcel, such as a specific shop space in a downtown building, Ellis said. They’ll have to take the entire parcel.
Shop tenants were the first to receive the sale flyers, which began going out on Sept. 6. Some of them had questions about what will happen to their businesses.
A buyer would have to honor the existing leases, Ellis said. However, not every shop or renter had a long-term lease, and some were just renting month to month.
On the day of auction, bidders will need to bring a photo ID, a $5,000 check made out to themselves, and a written opening bid in order to register. High bidders will see a 10-percent “buyer’s premium” added to their final bid as a way to defray auction costs, Ellis said. That buyer’s premium will be nonrefundable and due at the close of the auction, with the balance of the purchase price due upon closing of the sale at the end of November.
The heirs have had the properties appraised so that they know their value, and they have a minimum “reserve” price in mind, Ellis said. He could not disclose what those numbers were.
“Some properties might bring less, some properties might bring more,” he said. “If the total brings an amount the estate is satisfied with, then they’ll agree to the sale. They have that right to say ‘no’ to final bids if they aren’t satisfactory.
“The trust is hopeful, and so are we, that everything will be sold at the end of auction day Oct. 30,” he said. The only way they wouldn’t know the result then would be if the high bidder didn’t bid high enough, and then the bidder and the owner would go into negotiations. Sometimes that takes a day or two to work out, he said.
Ellis said they’re optimistic that the sale will bring “more than the estate is expecting.” Two business days after he started to advertise, he said he’d already been receiving inquiries.
Signs will be going up at the affected properties, he said.
