Boston’s Yacht Haven marina is under agreement and is slated to sell for an eye-popping $9.9 million in January, federal bankruptcy court documents show.
The sale price is nearly $2 million more than the $8 million credit bid that North End marina’s current owner, Northern Bank & Trust, paid at bankruptcy auction in August. No private bidder came close to matching that price at auction, with most bidders quitting the action at $5 million.
The $9.9 million figure is also close to the $10.1 million face value of Northern Bank’s 2005 mortgage on the 4.75-acre property.
According to a purchase and sale agreement on file with the bankruptcy court, Northern Bank has set a Jan. 8 closing date for the property. The buyer is Boston Boat Basin, LLC.
Paperwork on file with the secretary of state’s office shows Boston Boat Basin is controlled by prominent Newburyport developer Charles Lagasse. The LLC shares an address with Newburyport Development, a unit of Steve Karp’s New England Development. Neither Lagasse nor New England Development could be immediately reached for comment.
At the August auction, many attendees argued the marina’s former owner, Yovette Mumford, had grossly overpaid for the waterfront property. Mumford, the former sister-in-law of Congressman Ed Markey, took the waterfront gem from Modern Continental for $11.7 million in 2005. Auction attendees told Banker & Tradesman that Yacht Haven’s marina business wasn’t worth nearly that much, and that Mumford could have only justified the purchase price by redeveloping the site and operating it in violation of a series of deed restrictions.
The marina’s Commercial Wharf neighbors appear to believe that is still the plan. A bankruptcy court motion filed today by the Commercial Wharf East Condominium Association argues Northern Bank is attempting to sell the property free of any litigation currently attached to the site. The condo association’s land court suit restricted the marina’s parking and barred Mumford from operating the business as a restaurant, bar or function hall. The bank has also asked the bankruptcy court to bar the state’s land court from maintaining jurisdiction over deed restriction disputes. That, the condo association’s brief argues, would amount to an end-run around the site’s deed restrictions, making it much more valuable.
Northern Bank has rebutted this argument, telling the bankruptcy court that Boston Boat Basin has "repeatedly announced its intention to abide by" the restrictions.
