Red Elephant Bar Auctioned Off
On September 13, the former Red Elephant restaurant and bar on Main Street in Hailey was sold in an absolute auction. This means that the property, which was owned by US Bank, would be sold to the highest bidder regardless of price. Just for kicks, I attended the auction and I was in the majority group of what appeared to be primarily real estate agents and curious onlookers. The bidding started at $500,000 and quickly worked its way down to $100,000 before the first bid was made. After very little bidding activity and a few stall techniques by the auctioneers the price was still hovering around $100,000. At this point many of the curious onlookers started pulling out their cell phones to spread the news of the ridiculously low price. After all was said and done, the purchase price for the highest bidder was an unbelievably low $125,000.
Most of the onlookers were wide eyed and amazed at the incredibly low auction price. Granted the building is in need of extensive upgrades including a entirely new kitchen and modernization throughout but the price represents a screaming deal for the land alone, never mind the improvements. Its becomes a very strange sign of the times when a once vibrant Main Street haunt is meerly pawned off for such an incredible discount. Times are tough. The irony is that actor Bruce Willis just listed his once thriving Mint Bar and Nightclub directly across the street for $5.95MM which, needless to say, is far cry from the most recent sales comp direclty across the street. That’s going to be a tough sale for Bruce and I am guessing he may need to rethink his price.
The property was purchased by Steve Hogan, owner of the Wicked Spud which is another long time favorite burger and beer joint along Main Street in Hailey. I was encouraged that the new owner is a restaurateur. The hopes of seeing a replacement restaurant in what has been an empty hole on Main Street for far too long would be a great shot in the arm for Hailey.