Shopping center sold at auction

"Cherry Hill's Garden State Pavilions, with about $38 million in debt, was sold at auction Tuesday to the sole bidder - its lender. Bank of America, serving as trustee for a mortgage loan pool that included the shopping center, bought the property by bidding its credit. Richard O'Halloran, the attorney representing the bank, said the price was slightly less than the $38 million owed in principal, interest and penalties. A mostly empty line of storefronts sits between busy anchors at either end of the plaza on Route 70 and Cornell Avenue. The bank filed for foreclosure in May 2009 on the Pavilions, which opened in 1999 as one of two retail developments on the site of the former Garden State Park racetrack. Court records list the owners as Cherry Hill Properties 1, 2, and 3. Once the U.S. District Court approves the auction result, O'Halloran said, the bank will market the property for resale."