The property at the center of the controversy over the new medical center for VA Butler Healthcare is going up for sheriff’s sale.

The Deshon Woods site on Route 68 in Butler Township is to be auctioned at 11 a.m. Friday in the public meeting room of the Butler County Government and Judicial Center.

The Ohio-based developer Westar originally was set to build the new VA center on Deshon Woods, which is adjacent to the existing VA campus on New Castle Road. However, its bid was vacated after the government found that Westar had ties to two men who had served prison terms for crimes unrelated to Westar or the Butler project.

But by the time Westar’s bid ran into trouble, the company had clear-cut the 20.96-acre property.

A Westar affiliate — VA Butler Partners Company LLC — bought the site, paying Butler Township $2.4 million for 15.9 acres and paying Butler Memorial Park an undisclosed price for the remaining acreage.

When the project was put out to bid a second time, the VA selected Cambridge Healthcare Solutions to build the facility but on a new site in Center Township, even after another developer, Oxford Development Co., proposed building at Deshon Woods.

The decision proved controversial, prompting pointed questions from Butler Township officials regarding the VA’s second site selection process as well as multiple — and ultimately unsuccessful — legal challenges from Oxford.

It also raised the question of what would become of Deshon Woods, which the township commissioners have called a “sad sack” and an “eyesore.” The commissioners have said they wouldn’t mind seeing the land developed or rezoned, but have made it clear that they believe something needs to be done.

“I’d just like to see it restored back so it’s got a good viewing image for the public,” said Commissioner Sam Zurzolo in September.

The county seized the property after VA Butler Partners defaulted on its mortgage with AmeriServ Trust of Johnstown, according to court documents. That mortgage, which is valued at more than $8.36 million, according to the county sheriff’s office, will likely serve as the baseline for any winning bid on the property.

Sheriff’s sales are auctions in which the office mediates public bidding on properties that have reverted to the control of banks, mortgage companies and other financial institutions, which have the ability to set starting prices. That bid represents the fees associated with the sheriff’s sale process, and once it has been made then bidding begins in earnest and proceeds by increments of $100.

In many, if not most, cases, individuals participating in a sheriff’s sale are essentially bidding against the financial institution that controls the property it is trying to buy, said Jodi Thompson, county real estate deputy.

So essentially, bidders use the process to find a bank’s “magic number” for a delinquent property. The sales do not release properties from previous debts, like unpaid taxes and government liens, and bidders must come prepared to partially pay some of the price up front.

Thompson said successful bidders are required to pay 10 percent of the final price in cash, cashier’s check or money order on the day of the sale, and to pay the entire balance of a property’s cost by noon on the Wednesday following the sale.