(This story was updated with additional information at 1:07 p.m. Nov. 8)
[B]URLINGTON — An auction of equipment, furniture and fixtures left behind at the former Burlington College campus is scheduled for next month.
People’s United Bank, the college’s main creditor, has hired the Thomas Hirchak Co., a Morrisville-based auctioneer, to conduct the sale Dec. 7 at 10 a.m. at 351 North Ave. People can also participate online.
The items to be auctioned include a 3,600-square-foot commercial tent, flat screen TVs, artwork and “Hearthstone Hardwood Executive Desks with Granite Tops,” as well as many other furniture and electronic items.
Burlington College closed in May after People’s refused to extend the college’s line of credit. School officials blamed the closure on the burden of debt incurred to purchase a 33-acre North Avenue property.
The college borrowed more than $10 million to buy the property from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington. Burlington College was ultimately unable to fully pay back the diocese or People’s United Bank, both of which made loans to finance the purchase.
The proceeds of the auction will go to paying down Burlington College’s bank debt, which trustees estimated at $3.7 million in June.
Board Chair Yves Bradley has said the proceeds from the auction and the sale of its remaining property are unlikely to cover Burlington College’s debt to People’s United.
Burlington College has a contract to sell its remaining land, including the 351 North Ave. building, to developer Eric Farrell, who has already purchased portions of the Burlington College site. Farrell plans to build more than 600 condos and apartments on the land.
Bradley and Farrell have both said the property will sell for close to $3 million. That means the items to be sold at auction are combined likely to fetch less than $700,000 — though how much less is unclear.
Farrell said Monday that his contract with the college requires he purchase the remaining property before June, but for now that property still belongs to Burlington College.
A slew of other creditors are unlikely to be repaid at all, a fact Bradley has previously acknowledged.
When it closed, Burlington College still owed $145,000 on a loan from the Vermont Economic Development Authority. The estate of a former Burlington College professor has placed a $70,000 lien on the 351 North Ave. property seeking repayment of scholarship funds the estate says were misused.
New England Floor Covering Co. placed a lien for $13,295 on the property; D Specialties Inc. is owed $6,811; and Neagley and Chase Construction is owed $6,600.
Burlington Electric Department placed a lien for $15,097 on the property in June, but that was discharged in October. Neale Lunderville, BED director, said the utility has been paid in full.
Bradley said that money was paid by People’s United Bank, which he said has spent close to $200,000 for “continuing basics to keep the building heated and lit.” That’s money Bradley said the bank knows it won’t get back, but that they’ve decided to pay in order to ensure “an orderly closure” of the college.
Norm Blais, an attorney representing the estate that seeks $70,000 from the defunct college, said he was not surprised BED was paid first, because governmental entities are often given priority over other creditors. Blais said he does not expect his client will see a cent from the college.
“That’s the real tragedy of this case. For all intents and purposes it looks like my client won’t be compensated anything,” Blais said.
It’s also unclear whether computers recovered earlier this summer in Troy, New York, from a Burlington College-owned van are among the items that will be auctioned.
Those items were recovered as part of an investigation following a burglary at the college in July. A search warrant executed by police in New York says that 19 or 20 iMac computers were recovered from the van.
Burlington police have since confirmed those items were turned over to People’s United Bank. Among the items up for auction in December are iMac computers, according to a list posted on the Thomas Hirchak Co. website.
Bradley, the board chair, and representatives from People’s United Bank did not return multiple calls requesting comment on the value of the items to be auctioned and whether property recovered during the burglary investigation is being auctioned.
