[B]URLINGTON — Much of what remained inside the defunct Burlington College’s sole campus building was sold off to the highest bidders at an auction Wednesday.
Desks, armchairs, filing cabinets, phones, electronics and a trove of film and video equipment were some of the almost 600 items up for bid, relics of the tiny college that shut its doors in May. About two dozen Apple computers were up for sale, possibly the ones that were stolen from the college and later recovered by police.
The college’s main creditor, People’s United Bank, is looking to recoup as much money as it can through the auction. The bank loaned nearly $7 million to Burlington College to help finance its purchase of the North Avenue campus where it moved in 2011. Earlier this year People’s refused to extend the college’s line of credit; soon after, Burlington College closed its doors.
“It’s going to be a long day,” said Toby Hirchak, vice president of the Morrisville-based auctioneer Thomas Hirchak Co., hired to liquidate the items.
Hirchak and his father, Thomas, took turns throughout the day rattling off the items to a crowd of close to 100 people gathered in the former library area. Bids were also taken online.
Among the potential buyers was Barry Snyder, a former Burlington College film professor.
“To see it come to this, to see it abandoned, it’s very painful,” Snyder said as he looked through a former gallery space that was used to display microphone stands for sale Wednesday.
Snyder went to the auction to bid on a painting for one of his former students who had moved away, he said.
There will be lingering heartache for years to come, Snyder said. Many of Snyder’s former colleagues are still owed money by the college, he said. Some are still without a job.
The auctioneers said it’s hard to guess the true value of a lot until it’s all sold.
However, in emails obtained through a public records request and provided to VTDigger, Hirchak told a People’s United Bank vice president in June that he expected the auction to net $50,000 to $60,000.
Burlington College’s trustees estimated the school’s debt to People’s United at $3.7 million in June. The Vermont Economic Development Authority is owed $145,000 on a $250,000 loan to the college. A VEDA official reached Wednesday had no comment on whether any of the auction proceeds would go to repaying that loan.
Several vendors who have placed liens on the school’s remaining property — a classroom building added to the former St. Joseph’s orphanage building — are also owed a combined $26,700. The estate of a former professor has a mortgage of $70,000 on the classroom building as well.
An attorney representing the executor of that estate has said he doesn’t expect any of the $70,000 to be repaid, and it’s unclear where any money to repay the college’s vendors would come from.
People’s is in first position among Burlington College’s various creditors, and much of what it’s owed will be paid down when developer Eric Farrell purchases the classroom building — the last remaining property he plans to buy and develop into a new neighborhood on the former campus.
Farrell said the classroom building is likely to cost him $3 million, leaving $700,000 remaining on the college’s bank debt. He said he expects the sale will be finalized in June.
That $700,000 in potential losses doesn’t include $200,000 People’s has spent to keep the 351 North Ave. property open and operating since Burlington College shut down, according Yves Bradley, the college’s board chair. That’s money the bank doesn’t expect to get back, Bradley has said.
Farrell attended Wednesday’s auction. He said he bought an oak table for $100 and was thinking about bidding on several other furniture items.
VTDigger reporter Morgan True contributed to this story.