PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – June 30, 2008 – Thursday’s Marina Landing absolute real estate auction had been open for less than an hour when National Auction Group auctioneer Eddie Haynes put a direct challenge to the 121 registered bidders gathered by the condominium’s pool and patio area.

“If anyone wants to bid, they better do it now,” Haynes said, right before announcing what proved to be the last unit up for bid. “If we don’t get prices up, they’ll shut us down.” Haynes wasn’t kidding.

Marina Landing developer Wes Burnham and colleagues Wally Nall and Bob Reich enlisted Gadsden, Ala.-based National Auction Group after sales had been lagging for the 16-story high-rise’s condo units, located at the foot of the Hathaway Bridge’s west end. There were 25 Marina Landing units, both two- and three-bedroom units, initially available at Thursday’s real estate auction. But National Auction Group ended the auction after nine sales, at the request of the condominium project’s owners.

National Auction Group president William Bone said he couldn’t remember the last time an auction ended that way.

“They were looking for a little more than this,” Bone said of Marina Landing’s owners, shortly after selling the last unit of the day, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom suite that attracted a winning bid of $330,000.

The auction’s nine unit sales, including a 10-percent buyer’s premium added to the final prices, totaled $4,115,500, Bone said. That included a high sale bid of $558,000 for a three-bedroom, three-bathroom unit, and a low sale bid of $325,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit.

In a June 7 News Herald story, Burnham said that, when first offered last summer, Marina Landing unit prices ranged from $534,500 for a two-bedroom unit to $917,000 for a three-bedroom end unit. A number of buyers had backed out of their sales, he said, with only several dozen units that had gone to closing.

Checking the property

Before the auction began Thursday, onlookers peered from Marina Landing balconies at the National Auction Group stage, where hundreds of spectators joined the registered bidders and blue blazer-wearing National Auction Group employees.

As Haynes and other National employees solicited bids, Bone said the registered bidders had come from seven states and one foreign country. He praised the Panama City area as a strong market, noting the area attracted people from all over the country.

“We think it’s one of the best markets in Florida,” Bone said, as he pointed out a recent $450,000 bid for a Marina Landing unit.

After the auction, Bone said his firm wished it had sold more units. Bone said he still believed there was a strong market in Panama City, and added he thought National Auction Group would return to the area in the future.

Bone pointed out the auction had produced more than $4 million in sales.

“That’s a big day in this market,” he said.

Copyright © 2008 The News Herald, Panama City, Fla., Daniel Carson. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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