Despite a flurry of bids, the buildings that housed Bertha’s Mussels restaurant didn’t find a third-party buyer when they went up for auction on Thursday. Instead, they were sold to a private lender, who had foreclosed on the previous owners.
It was the second time in three years that the landmark buildings have gone up for auction.
More than a dozen people gathered at the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse on Thursday for an 11 a.m. auction of the real estate at 730 and 734 S. Broadway in Fells Point, home of Bertha’s Mussels restaurant for five decades but dormant for the past 19 months.
The lender was represented by David Cole of Coon & Cole LLC. Alex Cooper Auctioneers handled the sale.
Bidding started around $300,000 and rose in increments of $25,000. Two people traded bids until the price got to $1 million. At that point, auctioneer Paul Cooper conferred with Cole and announced to bidders that the property wouldn’t be sold for less than $1.05 million. Cooper had previously said that the successful bidder would have to pay another $186,447.50 in addition to the bid offered, in order to complete the sale.
The bidding resumed and rose to $1.025 million but no one offered $1.05 million. At that point, Cooper end the bidding and said the property would be sold to the lender.
Bertha’s opened in 1972 and was a pioneer in establishing Fells Point’s bar and restaurant scene. Its reputation spread with the help of a popular bumper sticker that urged: “EAT BERTHA’S MUSSELS.”
In November of 2022, the same buildings went up for sale in an online auction that started on Nov. 12 and was scheduled to end at noon on Nov. 17, but the sale was cancelled with 10 minutes left to go and a top bid of $1.32 million.
The 2022 auction was a voluntary sale on behalf of the Tony and Laura Norris, who ran the restaurant and wanted to retire. A representative for the auctioneer said after that sale that it was cancelled because the sellers were in “private negotiations” with a prospective buyer and needed more time to complete the transaction.
The prospective buyer wasn’t identified and the sale was never completed. The restaurant closed in October 2023 and the buildings have been dormant since then. An estate sale of furniture and memorabilia from the restaurant was held on May 25.
Cole said after Thursday’s auction that he would confer with the lender to decide what steps to take next. He said the lender, now owner, still wants to sell the properties.
