Auction at the Heart of Taft Corners
02 Oct, 2025 - Tranzon Auction Properties
As Seen in the Williston Observer
https://www.tranzon.com/ap25086
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.
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 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 businesses, also operates out of the office buildings. The buildings are “mostly vacant,” however, according to a property description from Tranzon.
Combined, they total 81,000 square feet.
“There are some occupants in the building at the moment,” Carey said. “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.”
The Texas Roadhouse is the only business on the properties whose lease will not be affected by the sale. The restaurant’s lease incorporates the property on which its building sits — a “ground lease” that was originally signed with Judge Development in 2007 and runs through 2028.
“Any acquiring party of the premises … (is) subject to the terms and conditions of the (Texas Roadhouse) lease, including, without limitation, the right of the tenant to possession and occupancy,” Judge Shafritz wrote in her September judgement.
In other words: “You can’t kick the steakhouse out of their building,” Carey explained. “Their lease survives the foreclosure.”
Tranzon describes the properties as “a rare four-property opportunity in the heart of Williston’s Taft Corners commercial hub.”
“Williston’s Taft Corners has been the focus of major residential and mixed-use growth, reinforcing its role as a regional commercial destination,” it continues. “This sale offers the opportunity to acquire the entire portfolio with both cash-flowing properties and redevelopment upside in one of Vermont’s most dynamic markets.”