Adelphia Headquarters Sells for Nearly $4M

COUDERSPORT, PA-After being put out to market last year the 72,056-sf, three-story headquarters of Adelphia Communications Corp. has finally sold–not for the suggested value of $30 million, estimated last year, but for $3.6 million. The buyer was unidentified.

This was the third buyer who attempted to buy the four-year-old opulent building–constructed out of brick, marble, granite and bronze–after the company placed the building for sale with online bidding company LFC Group at a minimum bid of $1 million. On Nov. 1, 2007, after a 20-day bidding war, a bidder claimed the prize with its offer of $3.4 million. However it was unable to procure financing, so the bidder defaulted. A second buyer from Northern Ireland also offered $3.4 million, but that deal fizzled out as well. The building went back on the block in February, with a minimum bid of $3 million. A third and final buyer won the building at $3.6 million this week.

Adelphia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after disclosing off-balance-sheet debt in excess of $2 billion. Two founders and officers, John and Timothy Rigas, were among the high profile success prosecutions of CEOs in the early 2000s. Time Warner Cable and Comcast have since acquired much of Adelphia’s communications business.

While the sale of its headquarters is a fitting end for the company, the transaction also spotlights the growing use of online auctions for commercial real estate. In a unrelated interview with GlobeSt.com Kelly Lovegrove, as director of operations at the LFC Group of Cos. noted that as the credit crunch intensifies, more firms are turning to the Internet for greater exposure to buyers as they seek to dispose of their assets.