Auburn luxury suites achieve epic fail
At Auburn, like at many other football schools, real estate companies decided to cash on on the massive amounts of money alumni and fans spend on going to see their favorite team. So, “Tiger Suites” was built. It calls itself a “condo hotel” and “the loveliest suites on the Plains.” We think that there’s not much worthwhile south of Tuscaloosa and north of Dothan, and the company auctioning off units discovered that others feel the same way.
But by the summer of ’07, even with Tiger football still in a bull market after an 11-2 season, the real estate bubble was starting to lose air, just as the Tiger football suites project was being completed. The 73-unit complex is just a short walk from Jordan-Hare Stadium, with many of the units having balconies that face that direction. And if you couldn’t see the stadium from your unit, you surely would have a great view of the water tower across the street. Units facing north looked down upon the adjacent railroad tracks, and for those who enjoy the rumbling sound of a passing train what could be better than sleeping right next to the tracks?
But now two years later, Coach Tuberville is unemployed and Auburn football is rebuilding after a losing season. The real-estate bubble has completely popped, so the 49 remaining unsold units at the football suites were put up for auction last week in what was dubbed the “WAR AUCTION!” in the auctioneer’s brochure. “It’s the Ultimate War Eagle Condo Auction and it’s Available for One Day Only!”
Cue jokes about the place being called Tiger Suites while the action of selling off the units is called the “War Eagle Condo Auction.” Anyway, it didn’t go so well. Of the remaining units, 12 were to be sold no matter what. EVERYTHING MUST GO!
But there was no momentum to be had. The first unit up for bid was the two-bedroom deluxe unit measuring 1,200 square feet. The auctioneer called for initial bids of $300,000 after all, the original asking price was $389,885. Despite aggressive urging by the auctioneer floor staff, there were no bids until someone up front shouted “$70,000!” The auctioneers collectively scoffed, and quickly moved on when $100,000 was offered. The 2bd deluxe finally went for $260,000 or 33 percent less than the original asking price.
It was all downhill from there. The next 2bd deluxe went for $245,000. Four of the 861sf, 2bd lockout units were sold absolute for between $125,000 and $135,000, less than half the original $279,885 asking price. Four of the spacious 894sf, 1bd deluxe units were sold for $105,000 — a more than 60 percent haircut from the original $279,075 price. Finally, after a train appropriately rumbled by at 11:45, a 768sf one bedroom unit went for $70,000 and $63,000 was fetched for a 581sf studio suite, roughly a third the original prices of $210,075 and $188,825, respectively.
When only $200,000 was the highest bid on the 2bd deluxe unit that was being auctioned with a reserve, and with most of the crowd gone, the auction was stopped. The absolute bid prices received were just too low and there was no sense going on was the word. But anyone who wanted to make a “reasonable offer” was invited to stick around and negotiate a price on the unit they wanted.
The guy who wrote the story that alerted us to this hilarious bit of schadenfreude really slammed the door, writing, “Auburn fans are counting on new coach Gene Chizik to quickly turn their team’s fortunes around. At the same time, the developer of football suites is hoping the real-estate market quickly turns around. Neither has a prayer.”
