The State - News from Feb. 24, 1985

More than 5,000 buyers filled a circus tent in San Francisco to bid on 123 beachfront condominium apartments in what was billed as one of the largest real estate auctions held in the nation for a single site. Minimum bids ranged from $64,000 for a one-bedroom unit to $262,000 for a two-bedroom penthouse. Condos moved at a rate one every two minutes, a spokesman for the real estate auction firm R. Thomas Ashley said. The Ocean Beach Condominiums were built near Seal Rocks on the edge of Golden Gate Park. They were initially shunned by buyers when they went on the market in 1982 with asking prices of $128,000 to $525,000.