NEWBURY — An online auction run by the federal government to sell the Pink House has started off slowly with no bids since it began Wednesday morning.
Parker River Wildlife Refuge Manager Matt Hillman, who oversees the Pink House property on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said he wasn’t surprised by the dearth of bids, saying it is still early.
“It’s a 30-day (minimum) auction and requires a registration process,” Hillman said in an email. “And in the end, all it takes is one successful bidder – maybe that bid comes through on day 30? Regardless of outcome, we have to try. I believe we all agree that the alternative is worse.”
The alternative is tearing down the iconic 100-year-old structure, Hillman has said.
While the opening bid is $3,000, the major stumbling block is that if the buyer wants to keep the home intact, it has to be moved off the roughly acre-sized property – a proposition that could cost up to $150,000, according to one estimate.
Once the property is sold at auction, the winner has until Dec. 31 to find a new site.
Despite a lack of evidence the auction is sailing smoothly, Hillman said Thursday he has been fielding calls asking for more information, particularly if the Pink House must be relocated.
“Relocation would be fantastic but there are other options to preserve the house’s memory,” Hillman said in the email. “Some ideas I have heard include building furniture out of the boards, constructing mini Pink Houses or sheds, creating pieces of artwork and others.”
The auction comes after years of failing to organize a land swap agreement. Since the Pink House rests on federal property and is owned by the government, a land swap was the only way for it to be handed off to a new owner without an act of Congress.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife purchased the building and 9.2 acres for $375,000 in 2011.
Well before that, the house had become a mecca for artists and photographers over the years. They flocked to the site, enchanted by the house’s distinct color and sweeping backdrops afforded by its unique location.
A local nonprofit organization, Support The Pink House, has been working with the federal government since 2015 to reach a potential land-swap agreement – or an individual occupancy option – to save the building. A pair of land-swap deals fell apart in 2020 and 2022.
Support The Pink House spokesperson Alison O’Dell said she isn’t surprised the auction has yet to attract a bidder.
“It’s exactly what we thought would happen,” she said in an email. “People want the house to stay in the place it is. That’s been at the heart of the community’s mission to save it. Fish and Wildlife offered the opportunity to move it since 2015 and nobody ever wanted to do it then, and that remains to be true.”
In March, about the same time the federal government released an environmental assessment of the property, officials announced that time had run out for any potential land swaps and the house would be listed for auction.
“I should reiterate that as of March 21, when the final environmental assessment was published, we can no longer evaluate land exchanges,” Hillman said last week.
Among the avenues explored for a possible land swap was one involving property located next to nearby Plum Island Airport.
Local real estate agent Lela Wright confirmed by email that in 2023, she reached out to the property owner with hope of providing a possible land swap area and served as a liaison between the two parties.
It was enough of a lead that the government became excited and pursued the idea.
“While it did have a number of drawbacks – being directly adjacent to an active airport and even containing a portion of the old, paved runway – our major concern was that, according to the owner’s representative, the owner was not willing to allow access to the property for an initial contaminants survey (a required first step of Fish and Wildlife’s due diligence),” Hillman said.
That unwillingness represented what Hillman called a “red flag” and essentially scuttled all prospects of a swap.
“It would be against policy (and irresponsible) for the USFWS to acquire property without knowing exactly what we’re getting in to,” Hillman wrote. “Being that this property used to be an active airfield, a contaminants survey is all the more important – think aviation or diesel fuel spills, underground storage tanks, etc.”
Another issue was land value.
The Pink House property was valued at about $500,000 with the proposed site valued at $375,000, Hillman said.
Odell said her group was aware of the proposed land swap but learned that it was rejected by Hillman.
Dave Rogers is the editor of the Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.