NY State auctions surplus properties

ALBANY -- Following the state auction this week of two former homes of prison administrators, New York is set to sell seven more surplus properties this summer ranging from a converted two-family house to a pair of brick armories and a prison camp.

The Office of General Services has set minimum prices, such as $390,000 for the 31-acre, 38-building Camp Georgetown in central New York's Madison County, and $35,000 for the six-bedroom, two-bath, two-family house that was converted for use as a group home near downtown Schenectady.

Other scheduled auctions are the Schenectady Armory, with a $180,000 minimum; 3.2 unimproved acres in the Putnam County town of Kent in the Hudson Highlands, $60,000 minimum; a former neighborhood hospital in Binghamton, $99,000; the Poughkeepsie Armory, $50,000; and a former community residence for the disabled in Potsdam in northern New York, $45,000.

Another seven surplus properties, including a Brooklyn armory and Staten Island prison, are listed on the agency's website, but with no minimum prices or auction dates yet.

"There will be more options announced as properties become available for sale," General Services spokeswoman Heather Groll said.

On Tuesday, the agency sold the former home of the superintendent of New York's oldest prison, in a historic district of Auburn in central New York, for $132,000.

With eight bedrooms, five full baths, an attached gazebo and a detached barn-size garage on one acre, the three-story house affiliated with Auburn Correctional Facility was appraised at $366,500. Two bids were submitted, Groll said. The minimum required bid was $125,000.

Bouley Enterprises president Dan Bouley told the Auburn Citizen that the price was a welcome discount for the family-owned construction company, which plans to renovate the 19th-century house, retain its historic integrity and consider whether to resell it as a single-family home or some kind of multiunit apartment.

"We had expected the price to be in the $200,000 range, so we were very pleased and felt that at that price we were definitely willing to take the risk and purchase it," he said.

The state also auctioned the former deputy superintendent's house for $110,000 after receiving six bids. The minimum was $65,000.