Former Outsiders bar fetches highest bid at Luzerne County tax auction

The highest price paid in Thursday’s well-attended Luzerne County delinquent tax auction was $164,000 for a restaurant/bar at 650 S. Main St. in Wilkes-Barre formerly operating as Outsiders Bar and, more recently, as The Dragonfly.

Plains Township resident Yvette Perdom submitted the winning bid at the free-and-clear sale amid heated competition that caught the attention of everyone in the bidding area set up at King’s College.

Perdom said she hasn’t been inside the structure and will assess it to determine reuse plans, though she expects it will continue as a restaurant and bar.

While the bar had previously been in the news for criminal activity, Perdom said she is determined to make the business she puts there an asset in the neighborhood.

Formally known as a judicial sale, Thursday’s auction sold properties cleared of liens and back taxes because they were not purchased at a first-stage upset sale.

Bids for the South Main Street property started at $5,898.

The three-story structure on 0.04-acre is assessed at $230,400, county property records show.

It landed in the auction due real estate taxes not paid by the owners, listed as Louis Weihbrecht and others.

A total $198,722 in real estate taxes were owed dating back to 2006, county tax claim records show.

The property was tied up in a bankruptcy for years that prevented the county from listing it for auction, according to county tax-claim operator Elite Revenue Solutions LLC.

It appeared in the first-stage “upset auction” in Sept. 2021, the year the bankruptcy was discharged. There were no takers because bids started at $200,000. Upset auctions are less popular because bidders must pay all back taxes and accept responsibility for other liens attached to their purchases.

Due to the competition and escalated price for the South Main Street property, taxing bodies will end up recouping most of the delinquent taxes owed.

Other high bids

In all, bidders collectively paid $1.657 million Thursday to acquire 120 properties.

A total 425 bidders registered for the sale.

The second highest purchase — $82,000 — was for a residential double-block structure listed as 129-131 Beech St. in Wilkes-Barre.

Bids started at $3,488.

Cindy and Alexander Lainez Cruz, of Warrior Run, submitted the winning bid, tax-claim records show.

The structure is 2,450 square feet on 0.08 acres and assessed at $71,200, according to county property records.

Some details about other top purchases based on information from county tax-claim and property records:

• Hazleton resident Miguel Tineo Ulloa paid $71,000 for a half-double on Washington Street in Foster Township.

Bids started at $2,942. The 1,440-square-foot, brick structure had been assessed at $78,300, but the assessment was reduced to $36,200 in 2021 due to fire damage. It sits on 0.09 acre and includes a garage.

• Bronx, New York resident Jose Corte Borja paid $67,000 for a brick residential structure containing two or three apartments that is listed as 436 S. River St. in Wilkes-Barre.

Bids started at $3,830. The 4,084-square-foot structure is on 0.07 acre and assessed at $111,400.

• Ali Abualburak, of Wilkes-Barre, paid $62,000 for a residential structure listed at 352 Second St. in Dallas Township.

Bids started at $1,643. The 2,520-square-foot structure is on 0.34 acre, with an assessment of $67,400.

• Hanover Township resident Dominic Lombardi paid $61,000 to purchase a cement manufacturing facility described as “Shawnee Concrete and Asphalt” on the corner of Main Street in Larksville.

Bids started at $2,976. The property is 2.29 acres and assessed at $390,400.

• Carleton Hurtt, of Yatesville, paid $58,000 for a commercial property on Commerce Road in Pittston Township.

Bids started at $4,986. The 2.09-acre property is described as a vehicle service station without bays and assessed at $205,100.

• Cepeda Diogenes Bueno, of Wilkes-Barre, paid $55,000 for a 1950s residential structure at an address listed as 909 Kunkle Road in Dallas Township.

Bids started at $1,839. The 1,627-square-foot structure has an attached garage. The 0.26-acre parcel is assessed at $77,800.

• Yahaira Tavarez, of Wilkes-Barre, paid $49,000 for a double-block residential structure at 816 W. Third St. in Hazleton.

Bids started at $1,436 for the 0.06-acre property. The structure is 2,272 square feet, with a total assessment of $77,500.

The remaining highest-bid purchase sticks out due to the assessed value and composition of the property.

A New Jersey woman paid $57,000 for a 0.06-acre sliver that contains a residential garage and driveway to that garage on Harrington Street in Courtdale.

However, the actual residential structure that appears to go with the garage is on a separate parcel owned by someone else and was not part of the auction.

The garage parcel purchased for $57,000 is assessed at $11,900.

Bids started at $2,340, and there were multiple bidders, prompting speculation that some incorrectly believed the auctioned property included the house.

Attempting to help educate bidders on what they may be acquiring, Elite Revenue had worked with the county’s GIS/Mapping Department before this auction to provide free online maps pinpointing each property listed in the auction.