James McGown Puts Buschenschank and 12 Other Properties Up for Sale

Shady landlord and restaurateur James McGown is selling off 13 of his properties including his beer hall and pizza spot Buschenschank in Cobble Hill. The enormous corner restaurant is usually busy, but hasn't been a good neighbor according to Pardon Me For Asking. There have been noise complaints, and McGown is apparently going against zoning to use the basement as music venue.

McGown has had a spotty history with bars and restaurants in Brooklyn. He purchased P.J. Hanley's, the oldest bar in Brooklyn in 2005, but declared it bankrupt in 2013. He nevertheless reopened the bar as Goldenrod, but that was seized by city marshals in November. The woes go on: his onetime mini-chain South Brooklyn Pizza declared bankruptcy in 2012, and managed to crawl out of it only to go shutter all of its locations except for the one that operates inside Buschenschank.

The "pre-foreclosure" auction (read: fire sale) is going down at the Brooklyn Marriott on March 27. A Pardon Me For Asking tipster alleges that the terms of sale, however, may not be on the up and up:

I've been told that no one in his/her right mind would bid under such conditions. His "terms of sale" are that the "time is of the essence" clause applies only to the buyer, which as I understand it, means he can put of the sale as long as he likes (meanwhile holding on to the deposit!), and that he reserves the right to cancel any sale, which I think means that after the auction he can decide which properties he wants to close on and which he'll keep, using the money from the others to pay off his debts, "renovate", etc. All of which seems to me typical of the way he conducts business, and woe to any buyer who gets ensnared!