The Appletree Mall at 4 Orchard View Drive has a reprieve from the auction block.
The retail-shopping plaza, anchored by Shaw’s Supermarket, was scheduled to be auctioned Jan. 27 by St. Jean Auctions of Epping. The auction has been postponed to Tuesday, Feb. 28, at 1 p.m., according to a notice from the auction company.
The 191,105-square-foot retail shopping plaza is less than a mile from Exit 4, sees an average daily traffic count of 32,000, and is commercially-zoned. Its major tenant is Shaw’s. Other businesses in the area are Benson’s Hardware, a workout club and a movie theater, none of which are on the property to be auctioned. The mall is 47 percent occupied by 14 tenants, according to St. Jean’s summary, and was built in 1982.
The plaza suffered a hit last year when T.J. Maxx and Home Goods, fellow anchor stores, relocated north to the Market Baskets revamped plaza off Garden Lane.
A spokesman for the St. Jean firm said in a phone interview that the company has no idea why the sale was stopped. “We never know why,” the man, who declined to give his name, said. “It could be for a number of reasons. They could be working with the bank to keep it, they could have filed bankruptcy. We never know why.”
Representatives of the management company, Renwood Properties, did not return calls for comment.