RTC Swiftly Sells Off $30 Million in Property : Auction: Nearly 800 bargain-seekers come to Anaheim Marriott to bid on shopping centers and other holdings of failed HomeFed.

More than $30 million worth of corner convenience centers, old bank branches and recently built office buildings changed hands in a span of 2 1/2 hours Tuesday as the Resolution Trust Corp. sold off commercial property from failed savings and loans.

Nearly 800 professional bidders, investors, real estate brokers and family trustees came to the Anaheim Marriott in hopes of buying commercial space at bargain prices. Some did.

A five-unit shopping center at 9502 Hamilton Ave. in Huntington Beach was sold for $250,000, even though its last asking price was $348,000. The 6,800-square-foot center had a leasehold interest, making it harder to sell than properties that a buyer can own outright.

All of the successful bidders are “getting a good price,” said Fred Smith, director of the RTC’s sales center in Irvine. “They are buying properties at a fair market value and will be able to get a fair return on their investment.”

The RTC also sweetened the pot by offering a 7% discount to those buyers who paid cash and will close their purchases by Jan. 22. On average, all of the properties sold for 60% of the appraised value.

Yet that didn’t mean the RTC was giving away the store.

While auction prices were often lower than the most recent asking prices, getting rid of the buildings in more conventional ways can take as long as three years, especially in a depressed market.

“It’s money right back in the coffers of the taxpayers,” said Henry Pena, auction project manager for the RTC’s California Sales Center. “We can’t be holding on to these forever.”

RTC officials said that they are saving the cost of maintaining the sites and are also adding the properties to the tax rolls.

And a handful of properties sold for more than the most recent asking prices. Among them was Town Square, an 86,000-square-foot retail center at Katella Avenue and Noel Street in Los Alamitos. It went for $4.3 million, about $600,000 above the latest asking price. It also was the most expensive property that was sold.

“In many cases, we come out ahead” through the auctions, said Shannon O’Toole, the RTC’s department head for auction sales. RTC officials said that they will not identify the buyers until the deals are closed.

The event was the first such sale that the RTC has held to get rid of real estate assets of HomeFed Bank, the state’s largest failed thrift. In all, nine of the 27 properties on the block came from HomeFed, and many more properties are expected to go on the block at auctions next year.

One HomeFed property, the Freeway Home Center in San Bernardino, did not meet the RTC’s expectations, and the winning bid was eventually rejected. The site, a 144,000-square-foot showroom retail center, was last put up for sale at $4.6 million; Tuesday’s highest bid was $3.1 million.

Offers for a closed bank branch in Palm Springs and another in Corona were also rejected because prices were too low. This week, the RTC will ask bidders who lost the sites at the auction whether they would once again be interested in them.

Some other prospective buyers who came away empty-handed said that the frenzy of the auction drove prices higher than they expected. A 27,000-square-foot, three-story office building at Parthenia Street and Balboa Boulevard in Sepulveda went for $1.6 million. Its latest asking price was $400,000 less than that.

“From an investment standpoint, it probably went for double what it was worth,” said Arthur Pfefferman, a Northridge businessman who quit bidding at $925,000. “But it’s a good deal for the taxpayer.”

Bruce Frasco, a real estate broker who was representing Pfefferman, said that the sale price was even more surprising because many tenants rent on month-to-month agreements, making it tougher for a landlord to maintain a stable flow of cash from leases.

Jung You of Costa Mesa also was disappointed when a bid went too high. She was banking on buying the Mabury Center at 1631 17th St. in Santa Ana, putting in a family lingerie business and leasing out the rest of the space. The 11,525-square-foot center went for $1 million; she wanted to pay $800,000 tops.

“We were waiting for the last moment to make our bid, but it just went too high,” said Jenny Nam, a Garden Grove real estate broker who was with You. “I wonder how the buyer will be able to get tenants. They will always be having to make payments. I wonder how they will be able to handle it in this economy.”