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Sold: The Medford Bertucci’s site goes for $5.5 million at auction
A failed lab development and ensuing bankruptcy led to the parcel on Mystic Valley Parkway being put up for auction.
As patrons streamed into the Medford Bertucci’s for warm rolls and brick-oven pizza on Tuesday, a small crowd gathered just steps away in the parking lot. While one of the chain’s few remaining restaurants hummed inside, about two dozen people waited outside to see who would claim the land it sits on.
The bidding opened at $6 million, but within minutes, the final price slid to $5.5 million.
The 1.42-acre property, which includes the still-open Bertucci’s in a 1940 building off the busy Mystic Valley Parkway, was most recently assessed at $4,058,900. Assessing records show it last sold in April 2023 for $8.25 million.
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The auction’s winners — three brothers from New York Capital Investment Group, owners of the fast-growing Prestige Car Wash & Gas chain — lingered to sign paperwork as everyone else drifted back to their cars amid the smell of pizza.
When asked if the new owners will keep the Bertucci’s, one of the brothers, who declined to give his name, smiled, saying, “For sure, yeah.”
“Bertucci’s has great food,” he added. “I love the bread … the pizza, too.”
Massachusetts business records list Ronen, Joseph, and Nir Drory as the managers of the Canton firm, which they established in 2019.
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Together, the three brothers own more than two dozen Prestige Car Wash & Gas locations in the state, with one just south of Porter Square in Somerville and another in Malden.
Developers fail to build lab space
The auction, held by Samantha Saperstein of Paul E. Saperstein Co. Auctioneers & Appraisers to sell the foreclosed land on behalf of the mortgage holders, Avidia Bank, was a far cry from what the previous owners had planned.
In 2022, Medford approved a $200 million, eight-story life sciences development for the site. RISE Development LLC, along with the previous landowners, the Matarazzo family, brought forward the proposal. The Matarazzo family is known for operating Deano’s Pasta for four generations.
RISE Development filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November. Bankruptcy court filings show that the developers failed to repay a $25 million loan from Avidia Bank and to pay real estate taxes on the property.
The developers told the court that the proposal for the site was no longer economically feasible because the market for biotech lab space had “drastically dropped” in the Boston area.
James Grossmann, the former CEO of the now-bankrupt RISE Development, did not return a call seeking comment.
Rent snapfu
Despite RISE Development entering into an agreement with the Matarazzo family in Medford, the ties soured over the years.
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According to bankruptcy court filings, after the family sold the property to the developers in 2023, it continued to collect rent from Bertucci’s. The family also shifted the responsibility for the real estate taxes from the restaurant to the property’s owners.
The developers claimed that they missed out on over $400,000 in rent and now owed the city over $170,000 in taxes.
However, on Monday, the Matarazzo family stated in court that the motion was moot because the family had transferred the funds to the developers.
Lawyers for both the Matarazzo family and the developers did not return a request for comment.
What’s next for Bertucci’s?
Despite the new owners’ remarks about keeping the Somerville-born Italian restaurant, it remains unclear what will happen to the Bertucci’s on the site, as it is one of only eight sit-down locations left in the state.
Bertucci’s is in bankruptcy court in Florida after filing for a third time in April, with each bankruptcy resulting in the closure of numerous restaurants in the state.
The company did not return a request for additional information.
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