New Corporation Buys Zion Campus

Shineharmony Holdings, Inc. of Waltham, Mass., believed to be a for-profit educational company, outbid a Barrington developer for the former Zion Bible college campus on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

Shineharmony bid $3.5 million for the 39.5-acre property plus a 10 percent buyer’s premium, making the final cost $3.85 million.

Barrington developer Joseph Ruggiero of Ruggiero Properties dropped out of the bidding at $3.475 million. He said he had set a ceiling of around $4 million, which would have been reached with the 10 percent premium.

Chinese-speaking representatives for the holdings company declined to talk about the purchase after the sale was closed, said Justin Manning, the owner and auctioneer of JJ Manning auctioneers of Cape Cod. It is not known if the company’s owner attended the auction.

The Massachusetts Corporations Division lists the company as operated by Liangming Qi of 11 Kings Grant Road, Weston, Mass. 

The listing also indicates that the company was incorporated just four days ago, Oct. 21, with Liangming Qi listed as registered agent, president, secretary, treasurer and director. It lists various business purposes, including education, investments and real estate.

An attempt to talk with Qi at his Weston, Mass. home would be unsuccessful without an interpreter, according to a family member. Representatives of Shineharmony also could not be reached at a separate phone number for the business, which lists an address of 625 Main St., a downtown Waltham building housing a variety of restaurants, convenience stores and offices.

Both the Zion Bible president, Charles Crabtree, and its attorney, Brad Martin, said the company’s representatives indicated that they bought the property for “educational purposes.”

They did not have other information to elaborate, however, and Martin said “there was a language barrier” that made chatting with representatives of the corporation at the auction difficult.

The bidding for the property started at $2 million – the reserve price set by Zion Bible. It moved right away to $2.4 million with an advance bid submitted to the auctioneers.

The bidding then moved up in price at $100,000 increments, before slowing to $50,000 and then $25,000 increments until Manning said: “Sold!”

An unidentified buyer from New York bid against Shineharmony until the $2.9 million mark. That’s when Ruggiero got involved in the bidding.

Ruggiero said his plans for the property included housing and a "hockey rink."  He said before the auctin that he planned to raze all the buildings on the campus, including Belton Court, the massive “castle-like” focal point of the campus, which is possible even though it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Crabtree said he was pleased with the sale price, even though the college had hoped to get its appraised value of around $5.8 million. It still holds a $4.1 million mortgage on the property, according to Martin.

“It’s a great relief” to get rid of the property,” Crabtree said, which has been vacant for several years and which has had several prospective buyers, including the town of Barrington, back out. Barrington offered $5.2 million last February but then pulled out because of the additional cost of remediating the property.

Six bidders registered to bid at the auction, but only three got involved in the bidding, including the New York bidder by cell phone. Charles Gill, a vice president for JJ Manning, relayed the New York bidder's offers.

Manning said the principals for Shineharmony left with a purchase-and-sale agreement signed by Zion officials and the auctioneer. They now have 45 days to close on the property, which was sold “as is without faults,” said Manning.

-With information by Ryan Grannan-Doll of the Waltham Patch.