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OCTOBER 2, 2025
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Auction at the heart of Taft Corners Five acres up for sale following foreclosure BY JASON STARR Observer staff Five acres at the intersection of Routes 2 and 2A will be auctioned off Wednesday in a culmination of foreclosure proceedings between TD Bank and landowner Judge Development Corp.
“It will be up to the new owner and those occupants to come to some sort of mutually agreeable terms, if those occupants want to stay.” Mike Carey Auctioneer
The acreage incorporates three separate parcels, including the 1800s-era “Blair House” that currently houses a preschool and day care, the Texas Roadhouse restaurant and two identical brick office buildings that are home to a variety of businesses. Foreclosure proceedings began last fall, with TD Bank seeking remedy in Vermont Superior Court for the landowner’s failure to pay roughly $7.4 million owed on the properties, Williston town land records show. Judge Megan Shafritz ruled in favor of
the bank in September and ordered the properties to “be sold as a whole or in separate parcels, to the highest bidder at a public sale.” Landowner Alex Judge declined to comment. TD Bank has retained auctioneer Tranzon to conduct the auction. It is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday inside one of the office buildings that are up for bid — together known as the Interstate Corporate Center. Bidders are required to submit a $100,000 deposit to qualify to participate. Maine-based Tranzon auctioneer Mike Carey has been showing the building to potential bidders in recent weeks, and has marketed the properties nationwide. He expects bidders from throughout the Northeast to participate Wednesday, including “two very strong bidders right from the local area,” he said. “We’re seeing pretty good interest in these properties,” Carey said. “People certainly seem to see some value in Williston.” The imminent change in ownership has created uncertainty for the Crockett Academy — a preschool and daycare that opened last year as tenants in the Blair House. Owner Phoenix Crockett said he’s reached out to potential bidders — including TD Bank, which could choose to retain ownership of the properties — to get ahead of a new lease agreement. “If it’s any of the major players who win the bid, all of them have already said ‘Nothing’s changing for you. We’ll set a meeting to write up a lease,’” Crockett said. “If it’s not one of
An aerial view, above, of the property to be auctioned off Wednesday, Oct. 8, in Taft Corners. The property, three separate parcels, includes two office buildings, the Blair House and the Texas Roadhouse. The Crockett Academy day care and preschool, left, opened last year in the Blair House at the corner of Routes 2 and 2A. The building is set to change hands during Wednesday’s auction. PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRANZON
those people, we’ll have to reach out and ask ‘what are the next steps?’” “If they wanted to get us out, it would take a long time, and we would fight very hard,” he added. “But it definitely is a possibility.” As a contingency, Crockett has inquired with board members
at the nonprofit Bellweather School that recently closed after 30 years about moving into their space on South Brownell Road. “I’m in talks right now to either rent or buy (the Bellweather School building),” Crockett said. “That will be where we go if we get in a pickle here.” Attorney Paula LeBlanc of
the Peet Law Group, one of the office building tenants, said the group plans to stay in the building under new ownership. “There will be no interruption to our tenancy,” she said. Regus, a co-working company that subleases office and meeting space to individuals and see AUCTION page 5
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