Courtesy / F.O. Bailey
The property came with 4.4 acres and various parking lots.
Updated: December 5, 2022
19th century Camden mill redeveloped for apartments has value-add opportunity
Courtesy / F.O. Bailey
The 19th century Knox Mill, now an apartment complex, sold for $6.5 million as an attractive value-add opportunity. The smokestack is used as a cellphone tower.
A historic woolen mill in Camden that was converted into residential and retail space in the 2000s sold for $6.5 million as an attractive value-add opportunity.
Knox Mill LLC bought the mill, which has a primary address of 39 Mechanic St., from Knox Mill Holdings LLC.
The mixed-use property consists of three interconnected buildings plus two nearby ones that total 58,000 square feet and 35 units, on about 4.4 acres. There are also various parking lots and a cell phone tower.
David Jones and Thomas Gadbois brokered the off-market deal on behalf of the buyer and seller.
“The rents were below market and there’s some space that was not being utilized,” Jones said.
A long history of manufacturing
Located on the Megunticook River, the building was formerly the Knox Woolen Mill, which was built in the mid-1800s and ran until 1988, according to a 2019 report by the town’s historian, Barbara Dyer.
“Half of Camden’s population worked in the mill, as did people from outlying towns,” she wrote. “It had the largest payroll in town for many years.”
Run by the Knox Woolen Co., the mill made the world’s first endless paper-making felt, according to the Camden Public Library.
“It’s a very historic mill building, very much the centerpiece of Camden,” said Jones.
In the early 1990s, MBNA, a Delaware-based credit card company, bought the mill buildings and restored them as office space as part of its expansion at that time on the midcoast.
The complex is now called Knox Mill Apartments and houses 30 apartments and five retail spaces, all fully leased, said Jones. Ground-level commercial tenants include a restaurant, clothing store and art supply store. The complex’s former smokestack is now used as a cellphone tower.
The value-add opportunities include building out units in a garage and a generator building, Jones said.
“There could be a great restaurant, offices, maybe condos,” he said.
The listing’s challenge, said Gadbois, was finding the right buyer who could take on a sizeable property. Gadbois said he and Jones had worked together with the buyer, who lives outside of Maine, on previous transactions.
“We knew this buyer likes nice assets and we knew it was perfect timing for him to buy it,” said Gadbois. “He had sold a couple of properties and had the money to put into this.”
Renovations will be performed as needed or when space turns over, Gadbois said.
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