Medley Centre to be auctioned Nov. 10

The defunct Medley Centre mall and nine other properties in Irondequoit owned by Bersin Properties LLC could be sold at a tax lien foreclosure auction coming up on Nov. 10.

According to a legal notice posted on the county's website, the properties in question include 285, 101 and 100 Medley Centre Parkway; 406, 400, 392 and 388 Tiam Drive: 1733 E. Ridge Road; and 1665 E. Ridge Road.

If the taxes remain unpaid past noon on Nov. 9, the sale will be held at 10 a.m. the next day at the County Office Building, 39 W. Main St. County records show more than $1.2 million in taxes are owed on the 10 properties for 2013, 2014 and 2015.

County spokesman Justin Feasel said the starting bid will be equal to the taxes owed, so the county will be made whole if the property sells.

The foreclosure action — an "in rem" proceeding — was approved by the County Legislature during a meeting in April.

Irondequoit Town Supervisor Adam Bello called the pending auction "another great step forward" because "one way or another, this will end with the taxpayers getting their money back and it could end with a new owner for the property."

Medley Centre, the former Irondequoit Mall opened to great fanfare in 1990 but soon faltered. Developer Adam Bersin attempted a turnaround in the mid-2000s, but was unsuccessful.

He sold the property to developer Scott Congel, at that time a principal with Syracuse-based The Pyramid Cos. in 2008. In exchange for a 30-year package of lucrative tax breaks from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency, the town of Irondequoit and the East Irondequoit Central School District, Congel promised a quarter-billion dollar reboot of the site that would include high-end retail, hotels, entertainment and residences.

The redevelopment did not materialize.

With backing from the town and school district, COMIDA yanked the tax breaks in 2014, and put Congel's Bersin Properties LLC sites back on the tax rolls at full value. Shortly thereafter, Bersin Properties countersued all three, claiming the entities didn't have the authority to pull the tax breaks.

In February, Bersin Properties lender Nomura Bank filed a foreclosure action against the company in state Supreme Court.

Those actions are still pending in court.

“As we have previously announced, we are in litigation with our former lender who stopped financing on the project in violation of our lending agreement," Congel said in a statement. "As that process moves through the courts, we will pay the taxes and continue to work through the legal process with the intention of completing our project at Medley Centre."

Feasel said if there are no bidders on the property, the county could take title to the parcels or leave the title in Bersin Properties' name. If there is a winning bidder, that bidder would have to schedule a closing in order to take title.

"This auction is a critical, necessary step toward the end goal of possibly bringing in a new owner and getting new development at the mall," said Bello.

MCDERMOT@Gannett.com