Holman Building gets first bid

The historic Holman Building in Pacific Grove has received an offer of $4.5 million, according to an online auction that started Monday.

The bid is $1 million more than the starting bid. The auction ends Wednesday.

Mike Bitar of Executive Commercial, which is running the auction, said he is prevented from saying yet who made the bid or if there has been more than one.

"God willing, it will be sold this time," Bitar said Monday night.

It appears that the auction is off to slow start; Owner Nader Agha put the 5-story building up for sale in 2008 for $17.5 million. Bitar said most bids come the last day.

Two potential bidders have gone public: Some members of the Shake family (who envision turning it into a marketplace like the San Francisco Ferry Building) and NxGen Capital (that wants to turn it into an assisted living/memory care facility).

Agha has owned the building since 1995 and put the property on the market several times. In 2012, an attempt to rezone the building to allow for development of a 200-plus-room hotel was defeated by Pacific Grove voters.