Geppi’s estate fails to sell at auction

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The Green Spring Valley estate owned by Baltimore comic book magnate Stephen A. Geppi was retained Thursday for less than $3 million by the bank that had foreclosed on it.

The property had been on the market for more than two years and was last listed at $3.6 million by Yerman, Witman, Gaines & Conklin Realty LLC. Geppi, who opened the Geppi’s Entertainment Museum in 2006, bought the estate in 2004 for $4.8 million, according to county land records.

A representative from Bank of America, the property’s lender, placed the opening bid of $2.79 million at an auction held on the Baltimore County Circuit Court’s steps Thursday afternoon.

Geppi owed about $3.25 million on the property, according to court records.

About 15 people gathered for the auction, which lasted less than five minutes. No other bids were placed.

The more than 9-acre property is known as Cliffeholme and is located at 4040 Stewart St. in Stevenson, just outside the Baltimore beltway. Built in 1848, the lavish, eight-bedroom home is decked out with nine fireplaces, a library, wine room, home theater, pool, elevator and private gym, according to the real estate listing. The property was assessed at about $4.6 million, according to land records.

According to land records, Geppi’s primary residence is a 10-acre estate in Timonium, valued at more than $5 million. He and wife Melinda bought that property in 2007 for $5.6 million, then put Cliffeholme up for sale the following year.

Geppi, CEO of Diamond Comic Distributors Inc. in Timonium, did not respond to a request for comment.

The foreclosure auction is the latest in a sting of financial troubles for Geppi, who is also publisher of Baltimore magazine and an investor in the Baltimore Orioles.

In 2008, an investigation by The Daily Record showed Geppi’s Entertainment Museum went 19 months without making any kind of payment to its landlord and accumulated a debt of more than $700,000 to the state in rent and other fees. Geppi settled the debt in early 2009.

In January 2009, PNC Bank won a $16.4 million judgment against Geppi, according to court records.

That May, Geppi and developer Walter J. Skayhan were sued for defaulting on a $600,000 loan for a planned, mixed-use development in Maine. Geppi and Skayhan guaranteed a loan for their Maine Investment Properties LLC in 2007, and the complaint in the U.S. District Court for Maine alleged MIP owed more than $550,000 on the loan.

In January this year, Westview Center Associates LLC settled a $200,000 dispute over unpaid rent from Geppi and Diamond Cinemas Inc., which operated the Diamond Cinemas Westview for six months in 2008.

Last month, Harbor Bank of Maryland won a $3.5 million judgment against Geppi, according to county court records.

And among those seeking money from Stephen Geppi is wife Melinda, who filed a petition in Baltimore County Circuit Court in February for child support, custody and alimony. Her address listed in the court filing is a different one from the Geppis’ estate in Timonium.

Cliffeholme was built by James Howard, son of Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard, and is listed in the Maryland Historic Trust’s inventory, which says the mansion played a “significant role in the history of the Green Spring Valley.” It’s been remodeled four times, including a massive alteration in the 1920s that gave it the English Tudor style is has today. In 2006, the Geppi’s added a pool and pool house and two, open-air pavilions.

Thursday’s auction was held by Towson-based Harvey West Auctioneers LLC.