Image courtesy of J.J. Manning Auctioneers

Residential developers, clean energy firms and conservation groups are expected to bid on a vast tract of Southeastern Massachusetts real estate spanning five towns and being sold by a trust affiliated with the Cumberland Farms convenience store chain founders.

The absolute auction scheduled for May 26 and 27 divides the 1,760-acre portfolio into seven bidding groups designed to attract the highest offers, said Justin Manning, president of J.J. Manning Auctioneers, which is overseeing the process.

“This one is big and unique,” Manning said. “You could build homes, there’s solar farms in the area and there’s groups that would be interested in it for hunting and farming, or leaving it as-is.”

More than 60 bidding groups have responded to the auction house’s marketing campaign, Manning said.

VS Haseotis and Sons LP is voluntarily selling the real estate portfolio which has been in the family for generations.

All of the land is undeveloped and zoned for a variety of uses including residential, industrial and agricultural uses, Manning said. The portfolio includes frontage on main roads that could be developed as single-family homes without subdivision approval. Approximately 1,080 acres are located in the town of Middleborough.

A large portion is located in the Great Cedar Swamp. In the 1980s, a federal judge issued an injunction prohibiting activity on a portion of the property, ruling that the owners illegally converted wetlands into agricultural land without approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

But the draining and clear-cutting of the swamp inadvertently created the largest open grassland in southeastern Massachusetts, serving as a habitat for thousands of shorebird and waterfowl species, according to the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Conservation groups have expressed interest in acquiring some of the property, Manning said.

The 42 separate parcels are located in Middleborough, Halifax, Plympton, Bridgewater and West Bridgewater. J.J. Manning grouped them into seven portfolios that will be bid individually, and were organized to be attractive to developers based adjacencies and the most likely future land use. Potential development opportunities include single-family residential, senior living facilities, self-storage and agricultural uses, Manning said.

“They didn’t want to get into 42 different closings,” he said. “They want to do deals with deep-pocketed investors who want to put the money in these parcels and figure out what they want to do with them.”