The Oakland headquarters of the financially and legally beleaguered Your Black Muslim Bakery went on the market Thursday for $899,000, an Oakland Realtor said. The property - an L-shaped lot of about 14,000 square, on which the bakery building at 5838 San Pablo Ave. and a residential duplex at 1083 59th St. stands - last month was placed in the hands of bankruptcy trustee Tevis Thompson after a judge moved the business from voluntary Chapter 11 reorganization into Chapter 7 liquidation.
Thompson contracted with Next Level Real Estate, a downtown firm owned by Feleciai Favroth; she said the property went on the market Thursday.
"I'm hoping that there's some interest. Obviously there's some repair that needs to be done to the property, it needs some rehab," she said. "But I think it's a very good price for that property in that location .... The idea is to create interest and not have it sit on the market for a long time."
The San Pablo Avenue building is a bit less than 7,000 square feet with a largely open lower level and living quarters upstairs, Favroth said, while the duplex is about 1,400 to 1,500 square feet.
More than 200 police officers swarmed those and other properties Aug. 3. Four people were arrested including Devaughndre Broussard, a bakery handyman who has been charged with the Aug. 2 homicide of Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey. Police said Broussard confessed to the crime after the murder weapon was found in his closet; he and his lawyer since have said the confession was coerced and bogus.
Also arrested was Your Black Muslim Bakery CEO Yusuf Bey IV, on charges connected to an alleged assault in San Francisco and a May kidnapping/assault incident in Oakland.
Your Black Muslim Bakery was founded by Yusuf Bey, who for many years was highly regarded in Oakland as a formidable businessman trying to better the lives of young African-American men. His business ventures over time also included a security company, dry-cleaning stores and other entities.
But stories of violence have dogged his family for years - a 21-year-old son was gunned down in 1994, the same year that two relatives were charged with torturing a man. Bey died in 2003 while charged with 27 counts in the alleged rapes of four girls under age 14; his successor, Waajid Aliawaad Bey, was found in a shallow grave in the Oakland Hills in 2004. Then the next CEO, Antar Bey, was gunned down in a 2005 carjacking attempt and Yusuf Bey IV assumed the business' helm just before being arrested for vandalizing two West Oakland liquor stores.
Bankruptcy court documents say the business spun out of control during this family turmoil, leading Yusuf Bey IV to file for Chapter 11 protection late last year. But he failed to file reports and pay fees and a judge last month ordered the business liquidated to satisfy its creditors; the IRS is owed $200,000 and the building's mortgage holder is owed $700,000.
