Huge Fort Monmouth Equipment Auctions to be Held

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By John Burton
FORT MONMOUTH – Have a need for an industrial size air conditioning/heating unit for a large – make that a very large –building? Got a yen for some slightly used furniture for your office building or need bedding for a couple of hundred dorm rooms?
If that’s you, Fort Monmouth’s upcoming auction could be your answer.
As the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) continues with its plans to redevelop the former U.S. Army installation, it has contracted with a private firm to conduct a series of auctions. The sales will occur over the next two years and will liquidate the contents of the fort buildings, many of which will be razed as part of the overall plan.
“This is big stuff,” said Anthony Natoli, co-owner of the Auctioneers Group, the company running the sales, of the size and scope of what is being offered for bidders.
For the first public auction, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 1, Natoli and his partner, Peter Costanzo, will be offering commercial equipment from part of the 20,000-square-foot former FBI building. That, Natoli said, will include “building maintenance stuff,” such as industrial size HVAC equipment, generators, down to the electric gate surrounding the structure. All will be available for the asking – for the right price.
Subsequent sales for this first phase of auction, which will be held Wednesdays, Oct. 15 and Oct. 29, will be for items from the former West Point Military Academy Prep School dormitory and for a 375,000-square-foot administrative office complex, containing six buildings with a total of 18 floors of office furniture.
The prep school dorm had 240 single rooms, each with furnishings, including single beds, desks, dressers. Also on site was the cafeteria; its equipment also will be sold. The dorm had eight laundry rooms, equipped with washers and dryers. The office complex had more than 2,500 swivel chairs, 500 conference chairs and approximately 1,000 filing cabinets plus kitchen and various other sundry items, according to the auctioneers’ website.
About 85 percent of the office furniture was left when the U.S. Department of Defense formally closed the site, according to Natoli.
The industrial equipment will likely appeal to a very specialized customer, either looking to install it in specific buildings, or, more likely, to refurbish it for secondary markets, probably overseas, the auctioneers said.
The dorm room items could be a boon for colleges or prep schools, a chance to refurnish their buildings, relatively inexpensively, they said.
While some items are seemingly for a select specialized customer, Natoli noted, “It is a public auction and open to all” interested parties.
Also going on the auction block will be the location’s 20,000- square-foot, 40-feet-high sports “bubble” – a technically portable building, the size of a full soccer and field hockey field complete with an Astroturf ground covering. That, Costanzo pointed out, would be ideal for a school. If new, the structure would cost roughly $700,000, he said.
Future auctions will feature things like the outdoor sports field’s scoreboard and bleachers, even the Plexiglas and metal semi-enclosed bus stop shelters that sat curbside along fort roadways. Outdoor light poles and fixtures also will be made available, they said.
The fort property contains approximately 5 million square feet of office space. Only 1.5 million of it will be reused with the proposed redevelopment. The remainder of structures eventually will be demolished to make way for future redevelopment for, hopefully, a full spectrum of uses – from commercial and retail to hospitality and residential – according to the development plan drafted and approved some time ago by the state authority overseeing the site’s redevelopment.
Over the next 24 months – beginning in earnest early next year after the three October auctions – the contents of the buildings, labeled as personal property (as opposed to real property, meaning real estate and structures), will be auctioned off.
Costanzo and Natoli have a combined experience of about 65 years in the field, Natoli said. They conduct about 50 to 60 public auctions annually, including some regular large-scale operations. They were contracted to run actions for the former Admiral Farragut Academy prep school in Bayville and previously ran auctions of state-owned items, including vehicles.
The Fort Monmouth equipment sale “presents some challenges,” Costanzo said.
“What’s unusual is the scale and size” of the location, Natoli said. “The scope of this is huge.”
The sprawling 1,126-acre property, straddling Eatontown, Oceanport and Tinton Falls makes it “like selling a city,” Natoli said. The fort, when up and running in its heyday, was very much a largely self-contained environment. “It had a hospital, a school. It’s got sports fields,” Natoli said. “It’s tremendous.”
FMERA chose the auctioning process “because it is the fairest way, the most transparent way” to liquidate these surplus items, Costanzo said.
FMERA contracted with the Auctioneers Group, located in Neptune and Lanoka Harbor in Ocean County, which will be paid a percentage of the proceeds, plus expenses. According to Rachel Goemaat, a spokesperson for the state Economic Development Authority, the Auctioneers Group will receive a 45 percent commission for the first three auctions; commissions of subsequent auctions will be 35 percent.
The proceeds FMERA earns from the sales will be used for redevelopment efforts at the fort property as required under state and federal law, according to Rick Harrison, FMERA’s director of facilities planning.
In September 2001, the Department of Defense formally decommissioned and closed Fort Monmouth after approximately 90 years of operation. The DOD transferred most of the research and development and other operations the fort had to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.
With the fort’s closing, the future use of the site is the responsibility of FMERA. The state authority is under the auspices of the state Economic Development Authority, which is looking to develop the property to benefit the region’s economy and is seeking to attract industry and jobs to the area.
Additional information about the upcoming auctions is available by visiting www.theacutioneersgroup.com.