EASTLAKE, Ohio -- More than 525 acres of Jerome T. Osborne Sr.'s empire in Lake, Lorain, Medina and Erie counties will be auctioned off Thursday.
"We've been selling off any surplus land over the past two years," says Richard Osborne Sr., the oldest of six survivors among nine children of this colorful tycoon and philanthropist. "This is about the end of it."
The plain-spoken, self-made Jerome Osborne, known as Ace, died in 2014 at age 92. He'd grown rich through soybeans, coal, real estate, concrete, building supplies and other trades. He'd supported the football stadium at Mentor High School, the fitness center at Lake Erie College and much more.
The family still runs some of his businesses but has already auctioned off some of his real estate, classic cars, vintage farm equipment and more.
Thursday's auction will take place at 1 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel Cleveland-Eastlake, 35000 Curtis Blvd. Bids will also be taken by phone. For information about the auction, contact auctioneer Seaman, 216-469-7081, [email protected], or click here.
The auction will offer some 23 nearly vacant properties, zoned for various uses, according to auctioneer Thomas Seaman of Keller Williams in Pepper Pike.
The sites range from about an acre on Mentor Avenue in Mentor to more than 148 acres at 307 Mantle Road in Painesville, where the site is being offered for a minimum bid of $450,000.
Seaman says sites in Kirtland, Kirtland Hills and Waite Hill are recorded by Lake County as zoned for agriculture but recorded by their municipalities as residential. The sites combine for 110 acres and $794,000 in minimum bids.
The sites on Chillicothe Road sites don't quite adjoin the Osborne family's iconic horse farm between Chillicothe and Interstate 90. Rick Osborne said the family plans to keep the iconic barns along the highway but may eventually sell off some of the farm's roughly 100 acres in residential lots of five acres apiece, the smallest allowed in Kirtland Hills.
Meanwhile, Mentor City Council is considering a measure tonight for the November, 2017 ballot to rezone the city's roughly four acres of the Osborne farm on the southeast corner of I-90 and Center Street (Ohio 615). The zoning would change from conservation to interchange service, allowing a short-term hotel and a restaurant without a drive-through.
Below are Seaman's listings of the properties to be auctioned. Some have no street numbers. A 10 percent fee will be added to all sales.
- Industrial Parkway, Brunswick, 9.66 acres, zoned industrial, minimum bid of $290,000.
- 1550 Industrial Pkwy., Brunswick, 9.02 acres, zoned industrial, minimum $315,000.
- Branch Road, Medina, 27.38 acres, industrial, minimum $275,000.
- Branch Road, Medina, 2.77 acres, industrial, minimum $80,000.
- Branch Road, Medina, 0.84 acres, industrial, minimum $40,000.
- Enterprise Drive, Medina, 2.75 acres, industrial, minimum $80,000.
- Enterprise Drive, Medina, 5.23 acres, industrial, minimum $125,000.
- Enterprise Drive, Medina, 7.83 acres, industrial, minimum $150,000.
- Enterprise and Branch, Medina, 4.27 acres, industrial minimum $150,000.
- Enterprise and Commerce, Medina, 1.16 acres, industrial, minimum $40,000.
- Colleen Drive, Concord Township, 0.56 acres, residential, minimum $25,000.
- Mentor Ave., Mentor, 12.67 acres, commercial, minimum $380,000.
- Mentor Ave., Mentor, 1.0 acres, commercial, minimum $75,000.
- 7293 Mentor Ave., Mentor, 5.75 acres, commercial, minimum $195,000.
- Chillicothe Rd., Kirtland and Kirtland Hills, 59 acres, zoned agricultural or residential, offered in two sections, combined minimum $344,500.
- Chillicothe Rd., Kirtland Hills, 7.29 acres, zoned agricultural or residential, minimum $50,000.
- 6680 Waite Hill Rd., Waite Hill, 44.08 acres, zoned agricultural or residential, minimum $400,000.
- Lake Street, Madison, 109 acres, zoned industrial, minimum $275,000.
- North Ridge Road, Madison, 1.93 acres, zoned industrial, $35,000.
- North Ridge Road, Madison, 18.9 acres, commercial, $60,000.
- 307 Mantle Rd., Painesville, varied zoning for different parcels, 148.47 acres, minimum $450,000.
- Berlin Road, Huron Township, 40.83 acres, zoned agricultural, minimum $160,000.
- Cook Road, North Ridgeville, 4.29 acres, three sections zoned commercial, a fourth zoned warehouse, minimum $325,000.
For more information about the Osborne Farms and their neighborhood, see below: