Posted on May 17, 2010 - by Jeffrey Posner

Picked up some press in the Montclair Times

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We caught wind of a commercial building being sold of by the town of Montclair to meet their budget…

Montclair auctions off Label Street property

They looked more like a couple of guys on their way to bowling, not two real estate investors hoping to acquire another property.

Jeffrey Posner, 33, of Montclair, and Eric Van Auken, 32, of Ridgewood, were two of the four individuals sitting in the Township Council Chambers this past Tuesday morning to bid on a piece of municipal property.

Dressed casually – Posner in jeans and flip-flops, and both men wore baseball hats – the two own a number of properties, mostly residential but some commercial lots, they told The Times. They run a Web site that lists foreclosed properties in the state.

Posner, who usually scoops up homes at Bergen County sheriff sales, said before the auction he wasn’t sure whether the two would ultimately win the Label Street lot.

“It depends. There’s an EPA question, so we’re not really sure we can take it,” he said.

The property, an 11,920-square-foot rectangular lot on the corner of Label and Forest streets, is the former home of a motor vehicle inspection station that closed in May 2008. It’s been used as municipal storage since then, and is now for sale to help narrow a budget shortfall.

The May 11 auction was the first sale of municipal property since June 2006, when Montclair sold 16 Portland Place, an old Fire Department facility.

Posner and Van Auken were going up against developers Steve Plofker and Bob Silver. Plofker controls LLCs that own a number of Montclair properties, including the soccer dome on Label Street and the Bloomfield Avenue home of Elevation Burger. Silver is an owner of the former Katherine Gibbs School, and is co-founder of The Bravitas Group.

Plofker and Silver were in casual business attire: jackets, no ties.

Though these four men were the only registered bidders for the May 11 public auction, once Township Manager Marc D. Dashield – acting for the first time as municipal auctioneer – started the proceedings, it was strictly a Plofker and Silver affair.

Silver bid first, a $100,000 offer immediately countered by Plofker. The bids increased in $50,000 increments – see-sawing between Silver and Plofker – until it reached $750,000. It sat there for a minute or two as the manager attempted to wring a few more bucks out of the two developers.

“I know somebody out there wants to give me $800,000,” Dashield said, rubbing his hands together with just a hint of glee.

But Plofker’s $750,000 bid was the last, and when Dashield closed the auction, Plofker leapt up from his first-row seat and immediately wrote a certified check for $75,000, 10 percent of the winning bid.

The bid, which needs to be approved by the Township Council at its May 18 meeting before it is formally accepted, is a bit more than the property’s assessed value, according to Dashield.

After the auction, Plofker declined to specify what he intends to do with the property if the council approves the sale. He has “some ideas,” he said. “I’ll let you know.”

Posner, who didn’t make one bid for the Label Street property, said he was surprised at the amount of Plofker’s winning bid. The lot could still have some environmental issues related to its previous use, Posner said.

Though Plofker is a household name in Montclair, Posner said he had to Google him to find out exactly who he is. An amateur real-estate mogul by comparison, Posner nonetheless said he would have attended the auction even if he were going against Donald Trump.

“Auctions are opportunities and if you never show up, you’ll never know,” he said.

Contact Terrence T. McDonald at mcdonald@montclair-times.com.

You can view the original article here