The former Breece home at 102 Rainbow Ave. in Sunbury finally sold at auction on Nov. 9, with Chip Carpenter of United Country Real Estate and Auction serving as auctioneer.
The minimum bid was $25,000. Four bidders were active early in the auction; the property sold for $41,000 to Ray Rammelsberg.
The village of Sunbury purchased the empty Rainbow Avenue property, a home with four lots totaling 100 feet wide and 118 feet deep, from Breece in 2013. Previous to that purchase, the village had purchased 13 lots from Breece on Sedgwick Avenue. Those lots contained deteriorating greenhouses that the village subsequently demolished.
The village’s old Sedgwick Avenue water treatment plant is slated for demolition at an unknown future date. Village Council members purchased the Rainbow and Sedgwick properties to create a park and parking space near the village’s two up-ground reservoirs.
Speculation was the home at 102 Rainbow would either be a fixer-upper; or the property purchased for existing water and sewer taps worth about $6,000 each, demolished, and a new home built on the site. Rammelsberg said following the auction the he intends to rehab the home for his daughter.
The sale came with a major restriction. Only one home is permitted on the four 25-foot-wide lots; the two lots without structures are considered non-buildable, except for a garage or outbuildings.
Village Administrator Alan Rothermel said the auction was a win-win situation for everyone involved.
“This was the first project I was tasked with when I became village administrator, and we’ve found a positive solution,” Rothermel said. “It’s a real testament to the school district and community the house sold for what it did.”
