Several attendees, sole bidder at auction

SEFCU retains ownership of 33 Second Street, home of Daisy Baker’s, Bacchus Wood-Fired Pizza

TROY >> A foreclosure auction to determine the fate of two local businesses was held Thursday morning, but bidders were shy.

The 33 Second St. property that houses Daisy Baker’s Fine Dining and Spirits, which closed following kitchen damage, and a still- operating Bacchus WoodFired Pizza was up for grabs. But after SEFCU, the local credit union that already owned the building, made the first bid at $650,000, others folded their wallets shut.

“We just wanted to protect our collateral,” said SEFCU president and CEO Michael Castellana. SEFCU landed on $650,000 by evaluating the current outstanding lien. Castellana said that was the absolute minimum amount they would consider in a disposition. “We think there’s an awful lot of value in that building,” he said.

More than a dozen people were in attendance, despite the snowy weather. Among the attendees at the Rensselaer County Court was President Sonny Bonacio of Bonacio Construction, which has recently made strong moves into the city.

Jim Scully, owner of basement business Bacchus WoodFired Pizza, said last month that he was considering buying back the building he had owned once before. However, he did not bid after SEFCU.

Scully sold the building to nowbankrupt local developer Sanford Horowitz in 2007. Since Horowitz lost the building to the bank, the property has been in limbo.

Neither business has a lease at this point, Horton said.

Daisy Baker’s Fine Dining and Spirits, remains closed after a pipe burst last December ruining the kitchen. “There a lot of things that have to happen for me to get reopened,” restaurant owner Jared Horton said. He is hopeful that SEFCU may be able to make an insurance claim, but it would still be months before the restaurant could open. “Hopefully that happens sooner than

later,” he said.

In the meantime, Horton opened Pomodoro’s Pizza in South Troy about a month ago, something he had planned before Daisy Baker’s closed. “That keeps me busy for now, but I want to get back up here,” Horton said.

Moving forward, Castellana said that SEFCU will be entertaining direct inquires of interest in buying before it considers putting it on the market. “We’ve had an awful lot of interest in the building,” he said. “We should be able to sell it fairly quickly.”

As for the businesses, rent will now go to SEFCU, but not for long, Castellana said. “Our primary effort at this point is to get that building in an owner’s hand that can really make it the jewel that it should be there in downtown Troy.”