FRACKVILLE — When the owner of the Schuylkill Mall failed to make mortgage payments, five parcels on the property were put up for sheriff’s sale, according to documents on file at the Schuylkill County Courthouse.
The property is one of several mortgage foreclosure properties listed for sale at 10 a.m. June 17 in courtroom No. 1 at the courthouse, 401 N. Second St., Pottsville.
“I can’t offer any information at all. I can’t comment at all. I have no authority to do so,” Elaine Maneval, mall manager and an employee of CBRE Retail Services, Conshohocken, said Friday.
The Schuylkill Mall opened in 1980.
In 2015, the mall lost two of its longtime anchor stores, Kmart and Sears. On Friday, the mall had 43 business tenants. They include the businesses outside the mall itself, like McDonald’s, Cracker Barrel and Holiday Inn Express & Suites, Maneval said.
The mall’s landlord, Empire Schuylkill LP, 3901 Manayunk Ave., Suite 103, Philadelphia, failed to make its mortgage payments, according to Gerard Catalanello, an attorney with the firm of Duane Morris LLP, Philadelphia, who is representing the issuer, The Bancorp Bank, Philadelphia.
A “complaint in confession of judgment” was filed on Jan. 20, according to the affidavit.
A confession of judgment by debtor, it’s the “written authority of debtor and his director for entry of judgment against him in the event he shall default in payment. Such provision in a debt instrument or agreement permits the creditor or his attorney on default to appear in court and confer judgment against the debtor,” according to Black’s Law Dictionary.
And a judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff, the issuer, Walnut Street 2014-1 LLC, by and through The Bancorp Bank, 1818 Market St., 28th Floor, Philadelphia.
Owed is $27,428,876.10, “plus continuing interest, default interest, attorney’s fees (incurred before and after the entry of collecting upon judgment) and costs,” according to the affidavit.
Catalanello would not say how many mortgage payments Empire Schuylkill LP had missed.
“There was default under the relevant mortgage document, and there was more than one default. And those defaults then gave rise to the filing of the complaint, which then led to the entry of the confession of judgement,” Catalanello said Friday afternoon.
On March 2, 2007, Empire Schuylkill LP, Conshohocken, bought the five parcels at 830 Schuylkill Mall Road from PR Schuylkill LTD Partnership as part of a $17,600,000 deal, according to the online Schuylkill Parcel Locator. Those parcels are:
• A 6.66-acre parcel in Blythe Township
• A 110.2-acre parcel in New Castle Township
• A 22-acre parcel in Ryan Township
• A 4.28-acre parcel in Ryan Township
• A 1.3-acre parcel in West Mahanoy Township
Information about the upset sale is available at www.co.schuylkill.pa.us.
“The properties are owned by debtors until they are sold on the day of sale. They are not open for public viewing. You will be bidding against the bank. The bank has a predetermined amount that they will bid to. This is called the ‘upset price.’ Only the bank, on the day of the sale, knows what this amount will be. It may be more or less than the judgment amount. The sheriff does not guarantee clear title to any property sold at sale. For example, you may buy a property with numerous liens requiring you to pay a lot more money than what you bid for the property and you must, under the law, pay these lien holders to clear what is now your title. This is solely your responsibility,” according to the site.
“There are no delinquent records in the tax claim bureau on any of these parcels,” Angela D. Toomey, the director of the Schuylkill County Tax Claim Bureau, Pottsville, said Friday.