Photo courtesy of Paul E. Saperstein Co.
A pair of foreclosure auctions are scheduled for Southbridge properties owned by developer Chip Norton Jr., including a hotel, conference center, office space and cogeneration plant.
Norton, best known for his firm Franklin Realty Advisors’ redevelopment of the Mercantile Center property in downtown Worcester, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in August 2025.
Paul E. Saperstein Co. scheduled an auction on Oct. 7 at the Wellsworth Hotel and Conference Center.
The 10-acre property at 14 Mechanic St. in Southbridge contains a 203-room independent hotel and conference center, 19,433 square feet of meeting and event space, an auditorium and 72,399 square feet of office space.
An auction notice touts the office portion of the property as providing “diversified income potential” alongside the hospitality uses. Currently, 13,657 square feet is leased.
The former American Optical Company factory alongside the Quinebaug River once employed 6,000 employees in a dozen buildings built between the 1880s and 1953. Norton’s Wellesley-based Franklin Realty Advisors acquired the property in 2006.
A separate foreclosure auction of personal property and secured collateral is scheduled on Oct. 7 for a cogeneration plant that supplies the complex.
In 2019, Norton’s Southbridge Associates installed a 1.1 megawatt cogeneration plant that recycled steam for use in the property’s heating and cooling system, after receiving a $6 million loan from MassDevelopment and Middlesex Savings Bank.
In a March bankruptcy court filing, the hotel’s lender accused Norton of improperly transferring assets to other companies he owns and striking a secret power purchase agreement in 2023 for the energy plant with a company he owns, SBC Energy LLC, at above-market rates.
The lender, X-Caliber Rural Capital provided a $13.25 million loan to the property owner, Norton’s Southbridge Associates, in 2022.
In an April 13 filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Boston, Norton denied that he intentionally transferred assets to the detriment of creditors, and stated that the power purchase agreement was based upon National Grid rates.
Photo courtesy of Paul E. Saperstein Co.
