Photo / Courtesy NXGen
The single-level building with 20-foot-high ceilings and mostly wide-open space facilitated the gym’s build-out
Updated: April 21, 2025
A former L.L.Bean call center in Portland gets new life as a fitness center
Photo / Courtesy NXGen
NXGen took just under 28,000 square feet of an 87,515-square-foot former office building in Portland.
A redevelopment project has wrapped up in Portland to convert a third of an 87,515-square-foot former office building into a gym.
“This building was unique for an office building,” said Preston Peables. “It was all one level and it had about 20-foot-high ceilings. The height made things much easier for us.”
About a year ago, Peables and his father, Elliott Chamberlain, bought the 75 Northport Drive property, in the Northport Business Park, from L.L.Bean. (The closest major intersection is Allen and Washington avenues.)
Built in 1972, L.L.Bean had owned the property since the early 1990s and had used it for various operations such as a call center and for photo shoots.
At the time the property was listed, it took a while to find a buyer, in part because of its large size.
But Chamberlain and Peables were looking for an investment property and were also thinking about expanding a fitness facility they own together in Scarborough, called NXGen Fitness.
Chamberlain owns Chamberlain Homes in Saco and builds custom homes in southern Maine.
Gym build-out
At the Portland facility, NXGen took roughly 28,000 square feet.
The space was mostly wide open, offering a blank layout and little demolition needed for the build-out.
New walls, lighting and electrical systems were installed. One of the biggest challenges was the lack of plumbing in the floor where the locker rooms would be built.
“We had to dig up the sewer line and get it across the building — about 100 feet of cutting concrete and digging down and bringing the line over to the locker rooms,” Peables said.
The gym layout is mostly a main room plus a front desk area with a smoothie bar, some offices, locker rooms, a group exercise room, a fusion room for cycling and strength training and a private training studio.
Financing for the purchase and gym build-out was provided by Androscoggin Bank and some cash.
Harriman, an architecture and engineering firm with three offices in Maine, provided the design. Chamberlain and Peables served as the general contractor and brought on a project manager.
Staff hires have trained at the Scarborough location and are now cycling into the Portland gym, Peables said. Many group exercise instructors teach at both locations. There are about 60 employees in all, including the instructors.
Quick sign-ups
Membership at the Portland location took off.
“We’re way ahead of what we anticipated,” said Peables. “Right now we’re at 2,000 new members.”
Scarborough has around 3,100 members.
“We’re running 800 to 1,000 check-ins per day at each location,” he continued. “At peak times, between all of the classes and the main floor and people training, we could have 180 to 200 people at once.”
Portland’s quick sign-ups likely reflect a strong industry boosted by a post-pandemic interest in health and wellness, along with brand awareness that NXGen had already built in Scarborough, he said.
“We’re way above where we were pre-Covid,” Peables said. “I think that comes down to people realizing that health and fitness are important. It was kind of a wake-up call.”
Tenant pool
The remaining 60,000 square feet is on the leasing market, although the potential tenant pool is somewhat restricted by zoning regulations.
“We get a lot of industrial users who want to look at it, but we can’t do industrial,” Peables said. “That limits us a little bit.”
Potential tenants could include office, co-working, biotech manufacturing, wet lab and traditional retail users, said Sylas Hatch of the Dunham Group, who was part of the brokerage team that handled the sale and is now the property’s leasing agent.
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