Fox Theatre auction on schedule for today

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Nov 6, 2009 | by Shaun Bishop

REDWOOD CITY -- A rescheduled foreclosure auction for the Fox Theatre is set to take place today, though it could be postponed a second time, officials with a foreclosure firm said Thursday evening.

The public sale of the historic downtown theater at 2215 Broadway has already been delayed once from its original date of Oct. 22, but as of Thursday evening, it was still set to happen this afternoon, according to PLM Lender Services, the firm handling the foreclosure.

The auction is scheduled to take place at 1 p.m. at the Marshall Street entrance to the San Mateo County Hall of Justice at 400 County Center in Redwood City.

"It's sounding like it's a go, but things happen very often at the last minute," said Elizabeth Godbey, a vice president at PLM.

Godbey said it is possible that the auction could be called off Thursday night or sometime this morning.

The lender seeking to collect the debt, Palo Alto-based Coast Capital Income Fund, had not set an opening bid price.

Reached Thursday, theater co-owner John Anagnostou declined to comment, other than to say he is still trying to hold onto the theater.

"I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow," he said.

In public documents, Coast Capital claims the owners of the Fox, a major piece of the city's efforts to revitalize its downtown, owe nearly $1.3 million in loans on the 1,400-seat theater and the adjoining Little Fox nightclub.

Built in the late 1920s, the theater overlooks the city's renovated Courthouse Square.

Anagnostou, who owns the building with Michael Monte, has said the theater is nearly $10 million in debt because of unpaid loans and penalties for missed payments. At least one other lender, the Palo Alto Players theater group, is a senior lienholder on the Fox.