New Haven Independent

A foreclosure sale of the building housing Christopher Mulhall’s popular Orange Street bar and restaurant was called off late Friday afternoon, hours before its scheduled Saturday starting time. The court’s attorney, Jerome A. Lacobelle (right in photo) had to call all 45 interested bidders who had contacted his office so they wouldn’t show up in vain.

“I had two girls working on it, and myself,” he said.

Attorney Lacobelle said that the property owner, Christopher Mulhall, who is also the Christy’s of the bar, had filed for bankruptcy Friday. That in effect stayed the foreclosure by the city for back taxes.

“The taxes,” said Lacobelle, “had added up to about $25,000, and Mulhall had paid $12,000. The idea of the bankruptcy is to give the owner time to work out a plan to pay the city the rest.”

A bankruptcy filing only provides such time. It does not exempt the filer from paying taxes.

Although it was the city that had brought the foreclosure for non-payment of taxes since 2006, Mulhall’s problems don’t appear to be entirely over even if he settles with the tax collector for the balance. The record shows that the building is collateral for a mortgage of $725,000 held by an entity called the CIT Small Business Lending Corporation, likely bundled up the line to one of the megabanks. The megabank was prepared to bid on the building, Lacobelle said. With an appraised value of $610,000, an opening bid might have been, the attorney suggested, in the neighborhood of $500,000.

“But, when the bank heard that the bankruptcy stayed the foreclosure, the bid never happened.”

Networking In Action

Some potential buyers nevertheless showed up Saturday morning, like investor Michael Davidson from New London.

Although there was no foreclosure sale, still a surprising amount of business was conducted. Business, that is, of the networking variety.

Two potential bidders, for example, even turned out to be connected, although they didn’t know it quite yet: Daniel Cecchetto (on the left in photo), who runs a Branford-based construction and real estate company, and Max Bender.

Bender, who’s the third-generation Bender of the eponymous plumbing supply company on Grand Avenue, had recently bought a multifamily house on upper Orange Street. For that reason, in part, this property on lower Orange interested him, as it did Cecchetto.

As the two men talked real estate — they both agreed investing in New Haven these days makes sense only in quieter neighborhoods like Orange Street — they realized they were related through business already.

Cecchetto’s company bought four properties this year and fixed them up. He told Bender his plumbers bought all their supplies from Benders.

“I love your family’s business,” he said. “They supply us with everything. And what’s more, in fact, what’s more important by far is that they solve my problems that all the crazy plumbers bring to me.”

“Here,” said young Bender, who had his eye on the Christy’s building as the perfect place to attract Yale students while he renovates the vacant upstairs units, “if there’s some problem they’re not able to help you with, a doozie, call me at this number.”

Then they exchanged cards.

“When you have some one you like, you stay loyal,” said Cecchetto. “We’ve been using Bender for 30 years.”

Now it was Bender’s turn to tell Cecchetto about his most recent investments. He’s just bought, he said, not only a multi-family house on upper Orange, but 17 units in Waterbury. Max Bender said the firm he’s the scion of has prospered since opening in the 1920s. “We’ve got stores here and also in Hartford, Bridgeport, and Waterbury. And 110 employees.”

What had drawn both men to the 261 Orange building was the location and the brick building. It was not in good shape externally. Michael Davidson (in the picture at the top of the story) had taken one look up and estimated $500,000 to renovate the three or four units above the bar for rental.

Bender and Cecchetto discussed the possibility of contacting Mulhall and offering to buy the building from him. They had heard he was interested in selling perhaps to deal with the sizeble mortgage. It might work and it might not, especially if Mulhall would continue to keep the bar. The units upstairs would require a lot of renovation as they appeared not lived in, although Lacobelle said he couldn’t get inside to see for himself.

Would Cechetto and Bender consider buying it together?

Whoa! Not likely. They had just met.

Young Bender said he is committed to his recent upper Orange Street purchase and the 17 units in Waterbury. “I couldn’t afford this place myself,” he said, “but I might bring my dad over to take a look at it.”

Cecchetto said that while he likes Orange Street’s location, he was still on the fence. “The Orange Street address is what really attracted me,” he repeated.

In the meantime, Christy’s decorations indicate sufficient confidence in doing a good business for the upcoming Halloween, and the foreclosure sign, neither a trick nor a treat, is not likely to stay up much longer.

Previous Independent coverage of New Haven’s foreclosure crisis:

• Bank Replaces “Gunshot Alley” Landlord
• Foreclosure Bill OK’d
• Singh Seeks Home For A Song
• Foreclosure Bargain — & Renewal — Jeopardized
• Bank Outbids Akbar; Family May Keep Home
• “So Don’t Worry About Pablo”
• Bankruptcy Postpones Foreclosure
• Next-Door Foreclosures, 53 Years Apart
• They Met On Foreclosure Way
• Little Garage Draws Big Bids
• A 2nd Chance on Lewis Street
• Foreclosure Attracts New Breed of “Specialist”
• In Foreclosures, Judge’s Hands Tied
• Home Saved From Foreclosure. Cycle, Too
• A House For Precious?
• Deutsche Bank Grabs Dixwell Condo
• Reluctant Bidder Snags F. Haven Bargain
• Well, There’s Always Powerball
• Neighbors Retrieve Home From Bank
• Somebody Has Plans For Bassett Street
• Foreclosed, the Khennavongs Leave the Santanas
• Foreclosure Steal May Be Too Good
• 2nd Foreclosure in 3 Months Dims Bright St.
• After Foreclosure, W’ville Owner Still Hopes To Sell
• He’s Not Buying, Yet
• Quiet Foreclosure on Porter Street
• 3 Minutes Too Late
• Historic Gambardella Property Foreclosed
•2 Homes Lost, 1 Gained
• “Everybody’s Got To Eat”
• More Foreclosures, More Signs
• Foreclosure Sale Benefits Archie Moore’s
• Rescue Squad Swings Into Action
• A Bidder Shows Up
• Bank Beats Tanya’s Bid
• Westville Auction Draws A Crowd
• DeStefano: Foreclosure Plan Ready
• Can They Help?
• “We Should Over-Regulate These Bastards”
• Rosa Hears of Rescues
• WPCA Grilled on Foreclosures
• WPCA’s Targets Struggle To Dig Out
• Sue The Subprimers?
• WPCA Hearing Delayed
• Megna’s “Blood Boils” at WPCA Tactics
• Goldfield Wants WPCA Answers
• 2 Days, 8 Foreclosure Suits
• WPCA Goes On Foreclosure Binge
• A Guru Weighs In
• WPCA Targets Church
• Subprime Mess Targeted
• Renters Caught In Foreclosure King’s Fall
• She’s One Of 1,150 In The Foreclosure Mill
• Foreclosures Threaten Perrotti’s Empire
•“I’m Not Going To Lay Down And Let Them Take My House”
• Struggling Couple Sues Over “Scam”

To learn about the ROOF Project, a community-wide effort to help New Haveners navigate the foreclosure crisis, click here.

The following links are to various materials and brochures designed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

How to prepare a complaint to the Department of Banking; Department of Banking Online Assistance Form; Connecticut Department of Banking, Avoiding Foreclosure; FDIC Consumer News; Statewide Legal Services of Connecticut, Inc; Connecticut Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service.

For lawyer referral services in New Haven, call 562-5750 or visit this website. For the Department of Social Services (DSS) Eviction Foreclosure Prevention Program (EFPP), call 211 to see which community-based organization in the state serves your town.

Click here for information on foreclosure prevention efforts from Empower New Haven.