By Carol Coultas,Business Writer

AUBURN – The city of Auburn is preparing to sell about four acres of land it owns along Mount Auburn Avenue, trying to capitalize on the growing retail hot spot.

“It seems the time is right,” said Jude Cyr, business manager for the Auburn School Department, which owns two buildings on the properties, a day care center and the Regional Educational Treatment Center. He said the School Committee will review its master plan at the Dec. 21 meeting and lay out ways to relocate its programs.

The day care building sits on 2.6 acres at 180 Mount Auburn Ave. and RETC sits on an adjoining acre at 154 Mount Auburn Ave. The assessed valuation on the combined properties stands at $3.5 million.

Cyr said the city has been watching the retail development that has sprung up in that neighborhood over the last few years. He’s heard land is going for around $175,000 per acre, motivating the city to sell.

“Nobody was around here when the buildings were built, it was all corn fields,” he said.

Wedged between the school department property and BJ’s Wholesale is about five acres owned by the real estate arm of Central Maine Healthcare Corp., parent of Central Maine Medical Center. That vacant lot is assessed at $981,000. In June, the property was transferred from a for-profit subsidiary of the hospital to its nonprofit real estate subsidiary. It had been paying about $20,000 per year in taxes.

A spokesman from CMMC said no one has expressed interest in buying the property, nor does the hospital have specific plans for it.

But other landowners in the area have said they’ve been approached by brokers interested in buying their property.

Sandy Heldman owns the three acres his store, Gee & Bee Sporting Goods, sits on at 190 Mount Auburn Ave. He said two brokers approached him about selling his property within the last week.

“I think someone’s trying to bundle these together” and attract a big-box retailer, he said.

Most big-box retailers need between eight and 10 acres for a standalone store. In the last three years, Home Depot and Lowe’s have opened nearby, with Kohl’s expected to open in 2006.

Cyr said he believes the city will try to line up a buyer on its own through its economic development office. Roland Miller, economic development director of Auburn, was unavailable Friday.

But Kevin Fletcher, a commercial real estate broker with Coldwell Banker/Millett Realty, said it’s only a matter of time before the property is scooped up. Although he said he was unaware of any ongoing negotiations, the school department and CMMC properties have been drawing interest from developers for a while.

“People are looking, that’s not a secret,” said Fletcher, who was talking with people from the hospital last week. “It will happen. I’m not sure whether it’ll be six months or longer, but it’ll happen.”

Vida Hunnewell is hoping that her property will draw similar interest. She and a relative inherited a little more than 21 acres directly behind the school and hospital land. The value of the property – much of it wetland – just tripled to $70,000 and Hunnewell dreads paying the tax bill.

She said no one has approached her about buying the property, but she wishes someone would.

“It is pretty wet, though,” she said. “My aunt said a farmer once lost a cow to quicksand there.”

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