Bid in Cape Girardeau federal building auction tops $300,000

The most recent of three new offers to buy Cape Girardeau's former federal building on Tuesday topped $300,000 in the early afternoon and extended the online auction that was scheduled to end Tuesday by at least another 24 hours.

The sale that saw only two bids since the online auction began Nov. 9 has now seen seven bids in a 24-hour span as the General Services Administration inches toward its suggested selling price of $750,000.

"It's difficult to predict what kind of bidding activity we'll continue to see," GSA spokeswoman Angela Brees said Tuesday afternoon. "We'll be watching alongside everyone else to see how the auction progresses."

On Tuesday morning, one of the original five bidders first upped the ante at 11:36 a.m. by $25,889 over the previous offer to a temporary new high of $209,777.

Then, at 2:28 p.m. the GSA's website, www.gsa.gov, logged a second bid that was $50,000 higher, bringing it briefly to a new top bid of $259,777.

Less than 15 minutes later, a bid of $300,015 came in -- a jump of $40,238 -- and it continued to be the top bid as of about 10 p.m.

If no new bids come in, the online auction is set to end at 2:43 p.m. today. But it would be extended again by another 24 hours if a higher bid comes in between now and then.

On Monday, four bids came in for the two-story building at 339 Broadway. Before that, only two bids had been made, although none have been close to the $750,000 the GSA hopes to get.

The building has sat vacant since last May, when the FBI moved out of the building. This is the GSA's second attempt to unload the 47,867 square-foot structure that was built in 1967. The first auction was extended in 24-hour increments 12 times in August. But the agency was unsuccessful in selling the building because the top three bidders backed away from their offers. The top two offers of $625,000 and $615,000 even forfeited their $25,000 deposits.

smoyers@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

339 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO