Bankrupt Norristown strip mall sold at auction for $1.6M

By Gary Puleo, The Times Herald
We all know that the famous zeps at Eve’s Lunch taste like a million bucks, and now the highest bidder at a bankruptcy court auction apparently thinks so too.

An unidentified buyer purchased the 9-year-old strip mall that houses Eve’s Lunch, The Untapped Artist, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs center, Creative Designs and Joe’s Water Ice & Ice Cream at 320 E. Johnson Highway for $1,632,400 at a live auction on Thursday afternoon.

The auction, which was overseen by Maltz Auctions, was held at United States Bankruptcy Court for Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 900 Market St., Philadelphia, with an opening bid of $1,275,000, noted Maltz Auctions spokesperson Kerry Goldberg.

“Unfortunately, we can’t reveal the name of the buyer,” she said.
The seller of the roughly 1-acre property was listed as United States Bankruptcy Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Re: Helen Antonelli, case 16-14945.)

A property search revealed 320 E. Johnson Highway as the address of Antonelli’s Dry Cleaners, which is not among the current lineup of tenants.

Although the center appears to be fully occupied, that’s not the case, Goldberg said.

“Technically, the building is only 54 percent occupied, because there are four retail units on the first floor and four office suites on the top, and not all of those office suites are taken,” she explained.

The Maltz website, MaltzAuctions.com, listed the center’s projected gross income as $279,000.
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