Video: Inside 5th Street Pub Pre-Auction

The stench of stale cigarettes clinged to everything in the interior of the in Lansdale.

Jason Yoder, sales associate for Tranzon Alderfer, opened the building for inspection by potential bidders on Monday. Bidders were able to walk the interior and exterior of the property in preparation for the June 11 auction.

The auction does not include a liquor license.

The inside of the business looked like some odd Chernobyl ghost town.

Four glass tumblers stood on the bartop, alongside a pack of Pall Malls and a Comcast remote.

The cash register was still there, as were the flat-screen TVs, a foosball table and a half-full bottle of Goldschlager.

The "Fifth Street Pub Take Out Pricing" wall was still intact. The same couldn't be said of the adjacent digital beer clock, incessantly stuck blinking "9:11."

The bathrooms were nearly tolerable, if you can get past the odor of residual urine.

Most of the entire bar area was empty, including the beer cooler. A pizza box and a cell phone remained on a ledge separating the hallway to the girls bathroom and an open area leading upstairs.

Upstairs - that was a different story. Certainly, this is where the squatters lived for the past months. Somehow, they were able to bypass the numerous locks installed and reinstalled on the doors.

"The squatters were asked to go," said Yoder. "They were nice guys. I guess they figured, if you can live for free ..."

Upstairs, one was available to walk throughout the six living spaces. Of the six spaces, four of them were similar to efficiencies - and they each had to share a common bathroom. Two of the rooms had their own living area/bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. One room was just that: a large room with a window.

The room at the top of the stairs was filled with furniture - beds, couch, TVs, dressers - and clothing, like shoes, hats, shirts, dresses, dress shirts, and dirty laundry. There was a suitcase for good measure.

You couldn't miss the table with the kitchen knives and the 1040A 2011 tax book on it next to the door.

The bedroom was stocked with a bed, TV, dresser and clothes in the closet. 

On the bed, it seemed there was a moment frozen in time. There were cards laid out in the middle of Solitaire. Next to them, there was a glass tobacco pipe (with tobacco in it), a pile of tobacco, pipe cleaners, two cell phones and a skinny butane gas can.

On the dresser nearby: a camo Army jacket, four packs of Newports, Crazy Glue and a comb.

One of the larger rooms with its own kitchen and bathroom was bare, except for a mattress and boxspring.

The second larger room was stocked with women's clothes, including a laundry pile by the bed, a formal dress in the closet and a blouse on the shower rod.

All of it: the stoves, the microwaves, the fryers, the bar, the TVs, the registers, the cell phones and dirty clothing and couch and beds and frozen moments are part of the auction on June 11 at 4 p.m. at Alderfer Auction Company in Hatfield. What you see is what you get.

About six buyer groups came through the property inspection on Monday, Yoder said.

"We've had lots of phone calls as well," he said.

Yoder said the property will sell on Monday.

"We don't take auctions where we don't have a realistic seller," Yoder said.

Bidding will start at a specific price. If no bids are offered, then the price keeps going down until someone bids on the price. Then, the bidding price starts back up.

The property is owned by a bank - BNB Real Estate Holding, LLC of Ft. Lee, NJ, according to Montgomery County records. BNB Bank is also a Small Business Administration lender.

The listing states the property has seven units, with a gross building area of 4,518 square feet. Apartments make up about 2,040 square feet, according to county records. The entire property, according to Montgomery County records, has an area of 6,625 square feet. It exists in Lansdale Borough's Class C Residential zoning district.

Yoder said the previous owners operated the business on a hotel license, due to the rooms upstairs, which allowed a bar to be operated in a residential district.

Yoder said the bank does not know the location of or who holds possession of the liquor license associated with the property.

BNB Bank got in touch with Tranzon's location in Maine, Yoder said. The company then got in touch with Tranzon's Pennsylvania representatives to auction the property.

Check out the video of the interior of the business and our photos of the property.

You can read more about the interior and auction of the Fifth Street Pub by clicking on the link below: