Maxim Condominium Foreclosure Update

Today I had the pleasure of attending the foreclosure auction of the Maxim Condominiums in Tenleytown at 4600-4608 & 4614 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington, DC 20016.  The conference room at the Law Firm of Ober/Kaler was packed.  It was shoulder to shoulder the whole time and the hallway in front was packed too.  Upon entering there were several easily recognizeable faces including

• Douglas Jemal – Douglas Development
• John Meekin, Jr – The Hamilton Group
• Jeff Stein – Tranzon Auctioneers
• Stacey Milam – Marcus & Millichap
• Ari Firoozibadi – Marcus & Millichap
• & the list goes on…

As the  surprising turn of events unfolded there was a small betting pool going on in front of the conference room door, one buyer said it couldn’t go higher than $3 million, the next said $3.5 million.  That seemed to be the general consensus.

After about 15 minutes of banter the auction began.  The auctioneer started at $5 million – no bids, $4.5 million – nothing yet…$2.5 million – BITE.  Someone put the initial bid in calling out “$2.5.” Slowly but surely the price started heading North again.  Before I knew it we were up to $3.7 million and silence took over the room.  Nobody would bid again.

The auctioneers called a 10 minute recess.  The room began to fill with chatter, discussing how the price already seemed to be bid too high.  It seemed like that was the end.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Within minutes of the auctioneers coming back into the room to continue the auction the room filled with bids, $3.8, $4, $4.2…soon the final voice in the room calls out $5 million and I think we all knew that was it – the winning bid.  As we looked around the room we all realized it was none other than the man himself – Douglas Jemal – buying one of his trademark properties – a large, approved PUD on none other than a corner lot.

While many of us can say that he paid too much, did do his research or made a poor decision.  I think that most of should sit back, realize what he has accomplished on deals nobody else would touch at his prices (like the Maxim Condos) and realize that Doug’s calculations have proved to be nothing less than profitable for the multi-millionaire.

Good luck, Doug.

Read the original post HERE.