Call it the crying of lot 881. Yesterday afternoon, Lofts 881, a new condominium located in downtown Bridgeport, Conn., auctioned off 13 of 19 unsold apartments in the building, which has a total of 38 residential units. The hour-long auction, which is believed to be the first of its kind in the state, took place in a conference room in a Marriott Hotel in the town of Trumbull, amid candy bowls and a two-piece jazz band. The 60 people there bid on one- and two-bedroom units that range in size from 540 square feet to 1,452 square feet, with granite counters, bamboo floors and stainless-steel appliances. The red-brick five-story Lofts 881, which is named for its address on Lafayette Boulevard, features a 1,000-square-foot basement gym and a 2,000-square-foot roof deck in a building that formerly contained doctor’s offices. Winning bidders likely went home happy. Their bids, which were between $125,000 and $190,000, were up to 50 percent lower than what buyers paid for units in the building two years ago, when they first hit the market. [more]

An auction of 19 units at Lofts 881 in Bridgeport, Conn., originally
scheduled for yesterday, has been delayed until Sept. 20. The auction
was postponed to allow time for additional open houses, according to a
press release from Sheldon Good & Company Auctions Northeast, which
is conducting the auction. Michael Fine, executive vice president of
project management at Sheldon Good, said the company has added new
financing options since the auction was first scheduled. The condos,
which range in size from 540 square feet to 1,452 square feet, were
originally priced between $264,000 and $360,000. The minimum cashier’s
check required to bid is $4,000 for a one-bedroom and $6,000 for a
two-bedroom. The building was developed by Stamford, Conn.-based E/N
Properties. TRD [more]