Real Estate

Yacht Haven Gets a Premium Bid for $9.9 Million

Banker & Tradesman is reporting that Yacht Haven, the marina property near Commercial Wharf, has attracted a premium price and is under agreement for $9.9 million. The buyer is Charles Lagasse, a Newburyport developer, through a company called Boston Boat Basin, LLC which is also associated with Steve Karp’s New England Development.

Yacht Haven is attached to Commercial Wharf

The price has raised some eyebrows after a failed bankruptcy auction last August where most bidders dropped out around $5 million. Yovette Mumford, former sister-in-law of Congressman Ed Markey, bought Yacht Haven for $11.7 million in 2005 and attempted to expand the property, which ran afoul of the deed at Commercial Wharf. In bankruptcy, the property fell into the bank’s hand, Northern Bank & Trust.

According to the B&T article, the condo board at Commercial Wharf is concerned the deal may try to invalidate the deed’s restrictions.

“The condo association’s land court suit restricted the marina’s parking and barred Mumford from operating the business as a restaurant, bar or function hall. The bank has also asked the bankruptcy court to bar the state’s land court from maintaining jurisdiction over deed restriction disputes. That, the condo association’s brief argues, would amount to an end-run around the site’s deed restrictions, making it much more valuable.”

Read the full B&T article.