Patriot-News, PA
May 1 2005
Vartan auction has deals, nostalgia
Supply company’s remnants liquidated
BY LES POWELL
Of The Patriot-News
Like everything else about John Vartan, this was big.
A liquidation auction took place yesterday at the Vartan Supply Co.
facility on Linglestown Road in Susquehanna Twp., where countless
items were up for bid from the business empire of the entrepreneur
and philanthropist, who died in December at 59.
Four auctioneers fielded bids on an inventory including lumber,
woodworking machinery, hardware, tools, paint, trucks, cars,
forklifts, a crane, shelving, office furnishings and restaurant
items.
The latter included 500 pieces of china, glassware, stainless steel
pans, chairs and tables from Vartan’s Parev restaurant in the former
Tuesday Club in Harrisburg.
Hundreds of prospective buyers’ vehicles were parked behind the
lumber warehouse, while others lined both sides of Linglestown Road
for several blocks.
“This is some auction,” said Dick Finley of Duncannon, who bought
clear wood preservative.
“An unbelievable amount of items,” said Joel Gavalett of Pottsville,
who was looking at trucks and garage equipment. “The prices are very
strong today.”
The Vartan Group started selling noncore properties and getting out
of some businesses after Vartan died.
In March, a Gettysburg construction company bought the 11-employee
Vartan Studios woodworking mill in Susquehanna Twp.
Ten other properties, including the one on Seventh and Maclay streets
with bushes that spell “Vartan,” are being sold.
The company decided to sell the mill and the supply company because
they are ancillary to its main interests, which include a
construction company, a property-management company and Vartan
National Bank. A plant that makes concrete products continues to
operate.
Vartan’s building projects included Forum Place in Harrisburg and an
office building at Third and Walnut streets. Projects he touted but
never built included, most famously, Vartan Village, a planned
housing development in uptown Harrisburg.
One of his most recent novelties stands in front of the site of
yesterday’s auction — a clock that runs backward.
The clock symbolized Vartan’s move from a refugee camp to democracy,
a company spokeswoman said. Vartan emigrated to this country from
Lebanon, where he had grown up in a camp for Armenian refugees.
But the clock and Vartan’s rags-to-riches life weren’t yesterday’s
draw. The attraction was finding a good deal.
Kim Schlissel, who owns a Schuylkill Haven home-decor business, said
she was looking for “office furniture — a couple desks, shelving
units.”
Others came to buy lumber, paint, electrical fixtures and other home
products.
Jerry Miller of Harrisburg was looking at a power nailer. “It’s for
nailing hardwood floors,” he said. “I install, sand and finish them.”
For Scott Knamm of Lebanon, the auction offered nostalgia. “I’m just
here to relive some memories,” he said.