Minimum bid on former Horn Nursing home could be dropping

WOOSTER — The price may be falling on the former Horn Nursing Home and the parcels surrounding it.

Huntington National Bank, which foreclosed on the property once eyed by Ryan Sheridan as the potential site of a Braking Point Recovery Center, filed a motion this week in Wayne County Common Pleas Court, asking Judge Corey Spitler to allow Canfield-area auctioneer Ronald L. Roman to drop the minimum opening bid for the property to $360,000.

Sheridan was one of six people involved with Braking Point who in February were named in a multi-count money-laundering and health-care fraud indictment in U.S. District Court. He’d purchased the former nursing home and adjacent and nearby parcels on North Market, North Walnut and West Larwill streets in 2017 from Sprenger Wayne Ltd. for $1.75 million.

At the time of the foreclosure, the properties had been listed for sale for $1.9 million.

Two of the 10 properties — a duplex and an adjoining vacant lot on West Larwill Street — were purchased at auction by Wayne County for the minimum bid of $100,000. But neither the county commissioners nor anyone else offered a bid for the Horn building, 230 N. Market St., and the seven parcels on North Market and North Walnut that surround it.

At that time, the minimum bid was $646,667, two-thirds the value of the property, which had been independently appraised for the Wayne County sheriff at $970,000.

Since the first auction, water pipes in the unheated building burst, causing a flood. The Wooster Fire Department has posted signs on the building, indicating that fire personnel will not enter the building in the case of a fire, but would fight it only from outside in order to alleviate the risk to firefighters.

Roman “has viewed the property and consulted with (Huntington),” which had “previously obtained an appraisal indicating that the property had a liquidation value of $540,000,” according to the motion. “Taking into consideration the condition of the buildings, the current unfavorable (commercial) real estate market conditions and the inability” to sell the property at the January auction, the bank is asking that Roman be allowed to drop the minimum bid to $360,000, two-thirds of the liquidation value, plus a 5 percent buyer’s premium.

By granting the motion, there would be no requirement for a formal reappraisal, leaving Roman free to set a second auction date.

Reporter Tami Mosser can be reached at 330-287-1655 or tmosser@the-daily-record.com.

CREDIT: TAMI MOSSER