Three-Day Real Estate Auction in Las Vegas Raises $340 Million

By Allison Halliday | May 29, 2011

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A three-day online real estate auction in Las Vegas successfully sold $340 million of bank owned commercial real estate property and delinquent loans. The auction listed $1 billion of property, of which 84% was sold.

Online real estate auction rakes in $340 million. Courtesy of

The online auction took place from May 17-19 and was conducted by online auction experts Auction.com who are based in Irvine California. Auction.com had a mixture of office, retail, industrial, mixed use and multifamily assets up for sale.

There were 9 multifamily assets, all of which sold, plus 25 retail assets of which 19 sold, 16 office assets of which 15 sold, and 12 industrial assets of which nine sold. It also had six mixed-use assets, and all of these sold.

Auction.com organized the Las Vegas online property sale. Courtesy of Auction.com

Jeff Frieden, chief executive officer of Auction.com, is reported as saying that investor interest in commercial properties in Las Vegas is exceptionally high. He also said "the timing and size of this unique offering meshed well with current market and investor dynamics."

The sale prices were broken down by commercial broker Dan Doherty of Colliers International, and make for some very interesting reading. In general property prices at this auction were less than the average prices achieved in Las Vegas over the last year, although the commercial properties on offer did sell for slightly more.

As expected, commerical properties in Las Vegas were in big demand at the auction. Courtesy of Las Vegas.org

Doherty found that industrial properties achieved an average of $51.87 per square foot at auction, compared with an average of $92 over the last year in Las Vegas. Office buildings were selling for $78.47 per square foot compared with $100 per square foot in the last year. Multifamily units sold for an average of $58,390 at the auction compared with $73,000 in the last year. Retail properties sold for $90.47 a square foot at the auction, compared with $88 per square foot over the last year.

The auction attracted considerable attention with over 130,000 visitors taking a look. More than 1,200 bids were placed during the three-day auction. Now Auction.com plans to hold auctions in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas in the near future.