Former Keating Funeral Home Sold

The former has been sold to a Sharon limited liability company, just over two years after closing.

Sunshine Realty LLC paid $435,000 for the property, at 46 South Main St., attorney Joel Fishman said tonight. Fishman said he represented Joseph P. Keating Jr., Fred Keating, Mary Murphy and Anne Keating, who owned the site. The four are siblings, Fishman said.

The real estate closing occurred Tuesday, Fishman said. The site became for sale in early 2011. The .41-acre site includes a two-story wood shingle building with 2,286-square-feet of living space, according to Sharon assessors' records online. The building was erected in 1900.

Fishman said Sunshine Realty is listed at 27 Horizons Road. Wei Hung Hui is listed as the manager, he said.

Sharon Town Collector William Fowler said the town received $45,600 of the $435,000 at the closing. The $45,600 represents real estate taxes owed from 2005 to the present, Fowler said. Sharon had foreclosure proceedings pending in land court since last winter, he said.

The funeral home closed in late 2009 after the Sharon Board of Health and the state funeral board revoked the site's local and state licenses, respectively.

The health board ruled on Nov. 30, 2009 after meeting with Fred Keating, Mark Farley and state Division of Professional Licensure Chief Investigator Chris Carroll, according to the meeting minutes.

Carroll told the health board that the state funeral board directed him to revoke the state license, according to the minutes. He said the state requires a state type 3 license for funeral homes, including 51 percent ownership by the operator. Carroll said the site lacked such a license, and that the funeral home was in the name of Mary Keating, who had passed away.

The health board had granted Farley permission to oversee the funeral home until Fred Keating was properly licensed, the minutes say; Farley had a state license for a Stoughton funeral home. His arrangement with the Keatings started in 2007.

The board revoked Farley's license for the Keating Funeral Home, but said it would consider renewing the license until April 30, 2010, its expiration date, if the proper credentials and state license were issued.

The Keating family, through Sharon's , in March 2011. 

The ad called the site "ideal for medical, professional office. Does need work but the location could not be better. Parking estimate for 18 cars."