No Bids Likely for Site on Los Feliz Blvd.

The 45-acre site of the former Franciscan Ceramics factory will be put up for auction Monday, but no bids are expected.

The now-vacant land, at 2901 Los Feliz Blvd., is being sold as part of foreclosure proceedings against a subsidiary of the Los Angeles-based Schurgin Development Co. The subsidiary, Franciscan Promenade, bought the land in 1988 for a shopping center but was forced into bankruptcy when the cleanup cost far exceeded the $6-million estimate.

The total debt against the property--which Schurgin purchased for $21 million--is now about $59.2 million, almost $50 million to Crossland Savings, a New York-based bank, and $9.5 million to the Los Angeles Community Development Department.

If the property is sold at the auction Monday, the purchase price will go toward the debt.

But the estimated value of the land is far below the outstanding debt.

“I don’t think anybody is actually going to bid,” said Diana Carlson, assistant vice president of the SBS Trust Deed Network, which will conduct the auction.

The sale is being held at 10:30 a.m. at the trust deed company’s office in Arcadia.

If no developer buys the land, the property will revert to Crossland Savings, and the value of the land will be deducted from the debt owed them. The city then would have to decide whether to file a lawsuit to try to recover its money from other Schurgin assets.

City officials still cling to the hope that “another developer will step into the breach” and bid on the property, said Deputy City Atty. Francisco Orozco. But, he said, “It’s getting close to the midnight hour.”