Over 400 potential Buyers crowded into a standing room only Crowne Plaza Natick Hotel to purchase 43 auction units and 12 additional post auction units at prices between 34% and 64% of their most recent asking prices.

The Nouvelle at Natick condo auction’s goal was to kick start sales at the troubled luxury condo development adjacent to the Natick Collection Mall, and despite the developer, General Growth Properties, not seeing the selling prices they would have liked, the auction brought the occupancy rate in the 215-unit building from 17% to approximately 43%, and more importantly, the market established a consumable price point of approximately $300 per square foot for remaining units.  The lowest purchase price at the auction was $249,000 for a 1 bedroom 1.5 bathroom condo, and the most expensive was $628,000 for a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom penthouse.

General Growth Properties, which has filed for bankruptcy because of the happenings at Nouvelle at Natick, looks to the auction to set a price point as established by the market, and is now poised to re-engage the market through a normal sales process on the remaining units, but at auction prices.  The plan has worked well so far, as 12 additional units, above and beyond the 43 brought to auction, sold yesterday following the auction.

The method will be tested again in the downtown Boston market when the Bryant is taken to auction (see Bryant Back Bay to Auction 10 Luxury Condos) in a similar fashion on October 17th – 10 units in the 50-unit development are slated for auction.  Similar to the Natick auction, the intent is to clear inventory, generate cash flow, and ultimately re-engage the buying market on remaining units (tentatively 35 units will remain for sale following the auction) in the luxury Back Bay / South End development.

General Growth Properties, the developer of the 215-unit luxury Nouvelle at Natick condo development west of downtown Boston, has turned to Accelerated Marketing Partners to auction off 43 of the Nouvelle residences on October 4, 2009 in an effort to kick-start new sales and provide operating cash flow to the bankrupt mall operator.

Nouvelle at Natick opened in 2008, and has sold or gone under agreement on 37 of the 215 available units (17%).  Minimum bids at auction will start at $160,000 (796 square foot 1 bedroom 1.5 bathroom), which is approximately 70 percent below the most recent asking prices.  In preparation for the auction on October 4th, a daily open house up until October 3, 2009 will take place onsite at 10 Nouvelle Way, Natick, MA 01760.

While it has not been announced that the entire inventory of remaining condos at Nouvelle at Natick will be up for auction, the development joins Longwood Towers as the second large-scale condo development just outside Boston to go to the auction block in 2009.  In downtown Boston, the 35 remaining lofts for sale at the South End’s 1850 condo development were auctioned in late June 2009 (see Buyers Prepare for 1850 Condo Auction).