Weyrich auction delayed until Tuesday

The public auction, slated for Friday, of key properties owned by David Weyrich — one of the most prominent businessmen in the county — has been postponed until Tuesday. The delay was announced Friday about 12:30 p.m. on the steps of San Luis Obispo’s old courthouse on Osos Street.

The holdings being foreclosed include the Martin and Weyrich Winery with more than 250 acres of vineyards; Villa Toscana, the luxury bed-and-breakfast inn nestled in the Martin and Weyrich vineyards on Paso Robles’ eastside; two tasting rooms; the York Mountain Winery and vineyards in Templeton; and the 280-acre Jack Ranch Vineyard in Edna Valley, according to notices of trustee sales filed with the county.

The properties were put up as collateral for an estimated $20 million that Weyrich has borrowed from Transamerica Financial Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Netherlands-based Aegon, documents show.

 Sheryle Machado, of All American Foreclosure Service, announces from the courthouse in San Luis Obispo that the sale of David Weyrich’s properties has been postponed.

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 A crowd of about 50 people who had gathered for the auction dwindled by the time the Weyrich properties were announced.
  
 Between 40 and 50 people gathered on the courthouse steps for the proceeding, scheduled for noon. Some said they had no stake in the auction but were simply there for curiosity; some were brokers who would say only that they were representing “interested parties,” and others said they would make bids if the auction proceeded.

Weyrich was not present.

Transamerica representative Susan Davis in Los Angeles told auctioneer Sheryle Machado of All American Foreclosure of the decision to delay the auction by phone.

Machado could say only that the decision to delay it until 11:30 a.m. Tuesday was made “at the beneficiary’s (Aegon’s) request.”

However, a number of the real estate agents and brokers in the crowd speculated that Weyrich might be getting private bids to buy the properties — offers serious enough for Aegon to consider delaying the auction.

One of the brokers, Chris Bausch of Independent Real Estate Brokers in Paso Robles, said that regardless of the reason, the delay buys time for anyone interested in making an offer on some or all of the properties at stake.