PROVIDENCE – Twenty-nine residences at Waterplace will go up for auction next month in an attempt to jump-start sales at the luxury condominium complex.
Developer Intercontinental Real Estate of Boston has marked down some of the units by as much as 69 percent with the minimum bid for one condo listed at $175,000.
Boston-based Accelerated Marketing Partners will offer that condo and at least 28 others during an auction scheduled for Oct. 17 at the Renaissance Providence Hotel in downtown.
Accelerated Marketing CEO Jon Gollinger said the auction intends to establish a new baseline price for the condos. Armed with that price, Intercontinental will put the rest of the unsold condos on the market.
“Once everybody knows what the right price is for everything, it’s easy to pull the trigger,” he said.
Of the 193 condos in the two towers that opened in 2008, just 15 have sold, Gollinger said. To keep a revenue stream, Intercontinental has rented the 178 unsold units. But it recently stopped renewing leases in anticipation of the auction, Gollinger said.
There are now 50 vacant units in the eastern tower. Intercontinental does not plan to renew existing leases when they expire. Instead, executives hope that the auction will create a queue of buyers.
“Our intention here is to come out with an explosion of activity,” Gollinger said.
In a statement, Intercontinental CFO Paul Nasser said the market appeared poised to deliver that explosion.
“Over the last six months, the market has begun to stabilize and even without a public marketing campaign, we have seen a significant increase in interest and sales at the property,” he said. “The renewed activity indicated that this was the right time to reintroduce Waterplace to Providence as a luxury condominium building, as it was originally intended.”
