Foreclosure auctions scheduled for Dec. 8 and 15 at The Inn and Great Elms have been postponed until January, according to William Marshall, president of the foreclosing lender, North Middlesex Savings Bank.
"We are committed to postponing the [December] auction to allow time to address issues, maintain the property, and reach a final disposition for the well-being of the tenants," Marshall said on Tuesday.
He said the bank "stands ready to postpone again" if plans for final disposition go well. Details on the plans that spurred the postponement are confidential until negotiations are complete, Marshall said.
Others involved in the negotiations would not say whether the plans are geared to a short- or long-term solution.
"We have an agreement for the [Municipal Affordable Housing Trust] to forestall foreclosure on The Inn and Great Elms and the trust is willing to commit funds to do that," said Ron Ricci at a Monday meeting of the housing trust, which is party to the negotiations.
Ricci, Selectmen's liaison to the housing trust, made the announcement after a 75-minute executive session that was called to discuss "the purchase of real property," a reason allowable under the open meeting law for going into a closed session.
Ricci did not disclose the amount to be committed or how the funds would be spent.
An August vote to spend $10,000 to hire a housing consultant to create turn-around plans was not fulfilled when the housing trust was unable to engage a consultant by late October. On Monday, housing trust Chairman Wade Holtzman said the group's bank balance stood at about $350,000.
The December foreclosure auctions were scheduled by the bank after the property owner, Harvard Trust Non-Profit Properties, defaulted on its loan for the Fairbank Street and Stow Road homes. The group had sustained a total of nine affordable units in the antique homes on a shoestring for 25 years and stopped paying its mortgage last April.
The apartments provide the only state-sanctioned affordable units in Harvard that are available to families; others are limited to those over 55.