As a small crowd gathered along Melrose Street in Auburndale to see the Turtle Lane Playhouse property auctioned off on Thursday morning, it became clear that something was wrong and there would be no new owner of the lot that day.

Then auctioneer Dan McLaughlan announced that there won’t be an auction for another two months. The property owner, Turtle Lane LLC, had filed for bankruptcy earlier that morning, setting off a 60-day delay.

Dedham Bank was foreclosing on the property, and the plan was to auction it off and allow the bank to reclaim at least some of its money from that.

The auction will now come with some autumn foliage, on Oct. 23, 2025, at the property’s 283 Melrose St. address.

The Turtle Lane Playhouse closed in 2013. Developer Stephen Vona bought the property with a plan to turn it into a mixed-use development with housing units, commercial space and a new theater.

The project was reduced in size a couple of times over the past several years, and after years of pushback from neighbors and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The property was put into a trust, the Joseph Tellier 2021 Trust.

In 2023, the bank sued Turtle Lane LLC and Donna Vona, Stephen Vona’s wife, and others involved with the trust, for more than $9.5 million, to recoup a $9.4 million it had loaned them in 2018 for construction of townhouses on the property, plus late fees and other costs.

in 2023 the city imposed a work stoppage order after the residential building, constructed without proper permits. was deemed structurally unsafe. Next top it sits the crumbling carcass of the once beloved village playhouse.

One onlooker on Thursday, who used to take his kids there to see performances before the theater closed in 2013, lamented that he’s had to look at the “eyesore” of playhouse ruins and incomplete, improperly built townhouses for years.

Others mingled and discussed things they’d like to see go in that spot, including a small grocery store or a village community center.

The lot is zoned VC2 (part of the Village Center Overlay District rezoning), which allows for 3 ½ stories by-right.