Dilapidated building to come tumbling down soon

The days of the old Liquidation Outlet building across from Auburn City Hall on West Main Street are numbered.

The days of the old Liquidation Outlet building across from Auburn City Hall on West Main Street are numbered.

OK, nobody knows the exact date yet, but City officials said last week it will be down in time for the Veterans Day Parade in November.

Auburnites who grew up in the ’60s and ’70s may remember the building at 30 W. Main as the 88 Cents Store.

However one recalls it, the storefront on West Main opposite City Hall has been empty for nearly 10 years, its owner, Washington Bank clinging on to its holding despite the building’s poor condition and, at one point, the City’s offer to raze it along with Frostad’s Rexall Pharmacy and the old Charlie Wong building.

Private developers Levan Auburn Development, LLC, of Los Angeles and Iounnou, LLC of Seattle, purchased the building last spring from Washington Bank.

Not just that property, either, they also bought the parking north of the Sun Break Café at 22 A St. SW, and most of the parking lot east of the cafe. Purchase price: $990,000.

In June, the same group plunked down $275,000 to buy from Gerald Honeysett the old Charlie Wong lounge site, which shared its west wall with the Liquidation Outlet.

The common wall, west of the Auburn Downtown Plaza, is an infamous eyesore.

A bit of history is attached to these properties.

By a previous agreement, the Stratford Group, a real estate development firm, which had at one time owned most of the block immediately south of City Hall – the exceptions being the Charlie Wong property and the Sun Break Café – had been required to notify the City by the close of business on April 1, 2009 whether it intended to proceed with its development plans. No such notification was received.

And when Stratford’s plans fizzled, Washington Bank acquired the parcels in bankruptcy proceedings. An earlier story in this paper misstated how Washington Bank came to own them.

City officials say the new owners of these holdings have not yet filed development plans with the City of Auburn.