Private Equity Pulls Auctioneer from Bankruptcy

A private equity firm came to the rescue of struggling Chicago-based real estate auction house Sheldon Good & Company. Sheldon Good auctions residential, commercial and industrial real estate. New York-based Racebrook Marketing Concepts, led by former Sheldon Good executive John Cuticelli Jr., acquired the firm. Cuticelli said he will move the firm’s headquarters to New York City on August 1, but will maintain a regional office in Chicago. “I am looking forward to working with the staff of Sheldon Good & Company to build on past successes and create a bright future by introducing the institutional quality management practices the company deserves,” Cuticelli said in a statement. It’s been a tumultuous year for the auction house. It filed for bankruptcy protection in April, just months after former CEO Steven Good was found dead in what authorities ruled a suicide, according to multiple media reports. Racebrook’s investments include a variety of distressed real estate and asset-backed securities transactions, including term asset-backed securities loan facility bonds issued by the US government and debtor in possession financing for bankrupt real estate firms. Write to Austin Kilgore.