Former Maple Breeze Property Headed to Foreclosure Auction

For those who fondly remember the old Maple Breeze Park on Route 2 in Pawcatuck, you can take this as a sign — both literally and figuratively.

On Saturday, Patch spotted a foreclosure-auction sign posted curbside at the entrance to the popular summer hangout. According to the sign, the parcel will be offered up at a foreclosure auction on June 8 at noon at the 350 Liberty St. property.

But if you're a local who remembers whiling away your summer vacation careening down the waterslide or bringing your first love to play mini-golf or ride the bumper boats or go-karts, don't get your hopes up unless you've hit the Lotto — buyers need to bring a $185,000 deposit with them to the auction. 

Since the park closed in 2002, it has seemingly been cursed. First, a Ledyard financier, Blake Prater, bought the 9-acre property for $1.2 million, but he was soon arrested and charged (and later convicted) of running a Ponzi scheme. 

The next buyer, a fellow from Norwalk, paid $1.8 million for the parcel, but — wait for it — was convicted of trying to bribe a Bank of America official to rig a surplus property auction.

The latest developer, it seems, has fallen on hard times. And here we sit, with just 9 acres worth of "Life After People" landscape, huge invasive Russian Olive trees obscuring what was once a bastion of happiness and teenage dreams. I guess bad things happen in threes, even to desirable commercial properties.

Still, wouldn't it be nice to think that a local group could pony up the money and restore the site to its 1980s glory? You could make that dream a reality, if you can scrape together almost 200 grand in a few weeks.

How would you like to see the former Maple Breeze Park developed? Tell us in the comments.