The Merita bakery adjacent to Railroad Park has been listed for sale by an Illinois liquidation firm. (File)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Birmingham’s Merita bakery, which sits at the western end of Railroad Park just yards from downtown’s new Regions Field baseball stadium, has been put up for sale by Hilco Trading LLC, an Illinois real estate firm.

The company, which was picked by a federal bankruptcy judge to liquidate assets of the bankrupt Hostess Brands Inc., is selling the Birmingham property in two lots, a company representative said.

One lot includes 110,612 square-feet in two buildings situated on 3.7 acres, and a second includes 19,071 square-feet in two separate buildings. The properties are at 1200 First Ave. South and 1300 First Ave. South, respectively.

Hilco is accepting offers until June 12, at which time the property will be sold to the party that makes the best offer, a Hilco representative said.

Georgia-based Flowers Foods Inc. has separately bid to buy Hostess assets, including the Wonder, Butternut, Nature’s Pride, Home Pride and Merita brands, plus several dozen bakeries, depots and other facilities. Efforts to reach a spokesman for Flowers were not successful.

About 90 people in Birmingham lost their jobs when the Merita plant closed in November after Hostess, Merita’s parent company, abandoned plans to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The disposition of Hostess’ assets has been overseen by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, where Judge Robert Drain today was scheduled to hear a Hostess request to change the name of the company to Old HB Inc. Tomorrow, according to Thomson Reuters News, Hostess is expected to ask the court to approve the sale of the Drake’s Brands to McKee Corp for $27.5 million and the sale of its Sweetheart, Eddy’s, Standish Farms and Grandma Emilie’s bread brands to United States Bakery for $30.9 million.