Portage Manor auctions begin with restaurant gear. Jail cells and other stuff yet to come.

SOUTH BEND — The first auction of items from the former county home Portage Manor is starting up, and it begins in the kitchen. More than 250 lots from the kitchen will be sold in this initial batch, whether it’s a freezer or a group of plates, Justin Kaser with locally based Kaser Auction Service said Tuesday.

This first auction is going live at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28 at Kaserauction.hibid.com. It’s an online-only auction that will run through 6 p.m. Dec. 10, with a chance for registered bidders on the “Portage Manor Restaurant Equipment” to come preview the items at Portage Manor from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 7.

County officials plan to use a series of auctions to liquidate the contents of the home, which they closed on July 31, saying goodbye to the last few residents with mental illness and disabilities.

Once it’s cleared out, county commissioners have said, they would then seek appraisals for the building and potentially seek a buyer.

Separately, the county has hired the local firm Kruggel Lawton to audit and help close out Portage Manor’s books by the end of 2023.

Oct. 10, 2023: Commissioners pick auctioneer to sell off Portage Manor contents. Could take two months.

Kaser said he hopes to hold a second auction in December and complete the remaining two auctions in January. But it’s a work in progress, he said, as he continues to sort through and evaluate items.

He acknowledged that Portage Manor is among the largest auctions he’s run, with several floors and rooms to take into stock. Another big one was liquidating the former Lunker’s sporting goods store and restaurant in Edwardsburg when it closed in 2015. He’s been an auctioneer since 1989 and has run Kaser Auction, which his father started and that he now owns, since 2012.

Each auction will be done with similar items. He and St. Joseph County Commissioner Derek Dieter are still deciding whether they would all be online auctions. Dieter has said that any on-site visit would be restricted to those who’d registered first.

After the kitchen auction, the items to be auctioned off in the next three sales would include vintage holiday decorations, furniture, tools, commercial washers and dryers, lots of janitorial supplies, two outdoor storage shelters, many religious items, medical equipment, office supplies, generators and a riding mower, among others.

The most curious of those items are more than 20 jail cells that had been used much earlier in the life of Portage Manor, which is more than a century old. Kaser said some of the cells consist of just the front set of bars, while others are L-shaped with bars in front and over the cell’s roof.

He said he’s sold jail cells before and believes bidders would be interested, mostly for personal reasons.

Dieter said he's reserved at least one of the jail cells, along with some other historical items, for The History Museum in South Bend.

Dieter said he’ll ask the county council to approve using the money raised in the auctions for hiking and biking trails that he intends to develop in the woods on the Portage Manor property, along with a Challenger Little League park for kids with disabilities near the adjacent Chet Waggoner Little League fields.

Aug. 25, 2023: Portage Manor beckons Developers. How could that affect its historic and green spaces?

Kaser guessed that the kitchen equipment alone could possibly generate $30,000 to $40,000.

He said this kitchen equipment is in better shape than many of the other commercial kitchen auctions he’s held.

The items — touted as good for anyone looking to open or upgrade a restaurant or bar — include a griddle-top stove, fryers, prep tables, a heavy duty mixer, freezers, refrigerators, ice machines, a fire-suppression range hood, sinks, a commercial dishwasher, a warming cabinet, bussing/kitchen carts, dining tables, cushioned stackable chairs, pans, plates and bowls, among other items.

South Bend Tribune reporter Joseph Dits can be reached at 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Portage Manor auction by Kaser to sell kitchen jail cells other stuff