Liberty Square is not going on auction block at this time

An Evans shopping center facing foreclosure will not change ownership this month.

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A legal notice ran in August regarding the pending foreclosure for the Liberty Square shopping center, with an auction scheduled at the Appling courthouse the first week of September.

"The lender will not be auctioning the property this month," attorney William Rothschild wrote in an e-mail.

Rothschild's firm, Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, represents Centerline Servicing, the corporation collecting the payment.

The Williamson Group, based in Boca Raton, Fla., purchased the five-acre property across from the Evans Walmart for about $6.3 million in 2006, according to county records.

The loan is currently held by Wells Fargo Bank as the trustee for Morgan Stanley Capital 1 Inc.

The original debt amount was about $5 million, which has likely changed, Rothschild previously said.

"They are trying to work something out," Rothschild wrote in the e-mail. "It will not be advertised (for foreclosure, in September), but it may be in the future."

The Washington Road property is valued at $4.5 million and houses 10 businesses, including Goolsby's, Salsa's Bar and Grill, and Augsburg Haus.

In January, news of the possible foreclosure alarmed several tenants.

The foreclosure uncertainty would not affect those already renting spaces within Liberty Square, Sherman & Hemstreet president and broker Joe Edge said at the time. Edge's company handles leasing at the shopping center.