The new auction date is June 13, Ponte said.

Leading up to Thursday, bidders were instructed to bring a $250,000 deposit check to bid on the property, which was last purchased for $51.8 million by JFR Global Investments, a New York-based real estate company, in 2018. The mortgage has changed hands several times, and is currently held by OFP Real Property Owner LLC.

JFR Global could not be reached for comment.

One Financial Plaza, on the far left, is the second-tallest building in the state at 28 stories high.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Ponte and representatives with CBRE, a real estate firm that manages the building, were the ones who turned prospective bidders and observers away.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” said former Providence mayor Joe Paolino, a prominent real estate mogul, while he was told the auction would not take place.

In 2017, when the building was last up for sale, Paolino was one of the developers who was considering making an offer. Prior to the 2018 sale, it was last sold in 2007 for $65.65 million.

Ponte told the Globe that he did not know why the auction was postponed.

The tower, which is the second tallest building in the state after the Superman building, was built in 1973 as an addition to the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Co. building at 15 Westminster St. It’s kitty-corner to Kennedy Plaza, and has been considered the “postmodern counterpoint” to the Superman Building’s Art Deco facade for more than 50 years, according to the Providence Preservation Society.

A sculpture outside of One Financial Plaza in Providence, R.I.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff

Also nicknamed the Sovereign Bank Tower, it was supposed to house the organization that funded the quasi-public Rhode Island Housing agency.

Most of the office space inside the tower is outdated, and tens of thousands of square feet of office space remains available for lease, according to online listings. The entire 26th floor, for instance, which has nearly 13,000 square feet of space, is available. The majority of the 22nd floor is also available.

Current tenants include Starbucks on the ground level, Bank of America, Lock Lord, Santander Bank, KPMG, Barton Gilman, Robinson & Cole, among others.

The privately-owned plaza was also been nominated to the preservation society’s 2025 Most Endangered Places list due to the lack of maintenance on the Howard Ben Tré designed fountain, which has been defunct for years. The fountain was designed in 1998.

While Thursday’s auction mostly attracted real estate executives and attorneys, it also attracted a small group of activists who wanted to disrupt the auction.

“Empty office buildings like this are always getting tax breaks, all while we lack housing and homelessness is on the rise,” said Mike Araujo with the Providence Worker Defense. The cooperative that advocates for working class people brought a $250,000 check so they could also bid on the building, but Araujo admitted that it would certainly bounce.

Commercial real estate vacancy rates in downtown Providence are already high: In the Financial District alone, which is where One Financial is located, more than 20 percent of all commercial spaces are empty. In nearby Capital Center, nearly 32 percent of spaces are vacant. Real estate leaders like Paolino have warned that the collapse of commercial real estate will have a devastating impact on the city’s tax base.

In the city’s most recent revaluation, commercial office values did increase by about 9 percent, but that pales in comparison to massive increases in single- and multi-family houses.

The city pegs One Financial Plaza’s current value at $40 million, but no one expects the building to go for that much.

Alexa Gagosz can be reached at alexa.gagosz@globe.com. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz. Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com. Follow him @danmcgowan.