COURTESY / MAINE REALTY ADVISORS
A national investor bought a Class B office building (foreground), with plenty of parking, that's leased to national broadband provider Consolidated Communications.
Updated: December 28, 2021
Amid the pandemic, Maine real estate kept rolling in 2021
COURTESY / MALONE COMMERCIAL BROKERS
Mallside Plaza, shown here, sold in mid-December for $20 million, capping a strong year for commercial real estate.
By Staff
Thanks to strong interest from investors and owner-occupants, Maine’s real estate industry had a strong year in 2021 — amid the ups and downs the pandemic year brought.
Although the numbers of home sales have been on a slow decline in recent months, after 2020’s soaring demand from out-of-staters, prices have continued to climb amid low inventory. That mirrored national trends, with the median sales price reaching $300,000 in November, compared to $270,000 in November 2020.
Top Portland-area transactions
Reports of the death of the shopping mall may be greatly exaggerated, if the recent sale of Mallside Plaza, at 198 Maine Mall Road in South Portland, is any indication.
The 118,422-square-foot South Portland shopping center — home to national and local retail tenants such as the DSW shoe chain, Guitar Center and Five Guys — sold this month for $20 million, capping a year of investment in existing properties with room for value-add upgrades.
Landing in the No. 2 spot for sale value was 645 Congress St. in Portland, a 56,410-square-foot, 60-unit multi-use high-rise building on 1.67 acres that went for $12.965 million.
Selling for $11.75 million was a three-story, 80,683-square-foot office building at 5 Davis Farm Road in Portland, where improvements over the past decade and a high-yield, long-term, triple-net lease by anchor tenant Consolidated Communications drew the attention of a national investor with Maine roots.
Close behind was the century-old Boyd Block and Four Canal Plaza, at 178-188 Middle St. and 4 Canal St. in Portland’s Old Port, which sold for $11.7 million to local developer East Brown Co, which owns neighboring One, Two and Three Canal Plaza and Fore Street Garage.
Elsewhere in the Old Port, 2 Market St. sold for $6.11 million. The six-story Greek Revival building dates back to 1850, was renovated from top to bottom in 2001, and is anchored by a solid tenant – LeRoux Kitchen, a kitchenware store.
On the Portland waterfront, it wasn’t the historic building but the adjacent parking lot that caught the eye of Maine Public Broadcasting Corp., which bought 35 Commercial St. for $10.76 million.
The nonprofit media company, known as Maine Public, said it intends to sell the five-story vintage building, called the Galt Block, and build a modern facility on the parking lot, to replace its rented space on Marginal Way.
COURTESY / MALONE COMMERCIAL BROKERS
Maine Public bought the century-old Galt Block and adjacent parking at 35 Commercial St. in Portland. The plan is to build a new facility on the parking lot and sell the building.
The seller of the Galt Block also sold 5 India St. in Portland. The new 20,325-square-foot, 24-unit multi-family building at 5 India St. sold for $6.1 million.
On Portland’s outskirts, a high-quality 24,524-square-foot building medical office building at 43 Baxter Boulevard, anchored with a long-term lease by Mercy Hospital and coming with a 100-car parking lot, sold for $7.2 million in an off-market deal.
COURTESY / PORTA & CO.
A 24,524-square-foot medical office building on Baxter Boulevard in Portland ticked the right boxes for location, tenant, quality and return on investment.
The value of the property was enhanced by proximity to the entrance of a busy Hannaford supermarket and to I-295 — and by the abundance of surface parking, a scarce commodity in Portland.
Other big buys in Maine
Portland may have garnered a lot of top sales, but the year’s biggest deal was the December sale of the Union Bluff Hotel, at 8 Beech St. in York, which went for $23 million to a large hotel management firm headquartered in Quincy, Mass.
COURTESY / UNION BLUFF HOTEL FACEBOOK PAGE
Union Bluff Hotel, on York’s beachfront, sold for $23 million in December.
In Topsham, A 60-year-old rental development for the workforce housing market, called Patriot Common and located off Canam Drive, went for $6.9 million.
COURTESY / MALONE COMMERCIAL BROKERS
A rental development in Topsham once served as military housing for the former Naval Air Station Brunswick. It received quite a bit of investor interest.
Originally part of a larger portfolio of military housing associated with the former Naval Air Station Brunswick, the buyer saw an opportunity for a long-term hold with some room for updates.
In Bar Harbor, a 43-room downtown hotel called Bar Harbor Manor, at 47 Holland Ave., sold for $8.1 million.
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