Crain's Detroit is reporting that July's auction of beloved Eastern Market nightspot and barbecue joint Bert's Marketplace has fallen through. In an email, Ryan Snoek, the Detroit resident acting as an auction adviser, told Crain's that the closing failed, and that the July 24 auction's winner wasn't local. "Not a big deal," Snoek told Crain's. "Gives everyone else another shot." That shot is a new action on Oct 26-28 for the 33,000-square-foot property and its adjoining 20,000 square foot of surface parking. Bert's lease ends in 2017, and the auction website says the lease brings in over $80K a year in revenue.
Per the auction site, the starting bid for the building owned for over a decade by Bert's proprietor Bert Dearing is $700,000. Dearing, who's run Bert's Marketplace for over 30 years, lost the property to foreclosure in 2014 after a series of medical crises.
·Drama Galore as Bert's Battles Landlord in Local Media [Curbed Detroit]
·Bert's Warehouse back on auction block after $1.985M deal fizzles out [Crain's Detroit]
·Bert's Marketplace [Auction.com]