Courtesy / Byers Family
The store is seen here in the late 1970s.
May 11, 2020
Amidst pandemic, couple forges ahead to buy Long Island store
Courtesy / Byers Family
Catlin and Matthew Byers bought 262 Island Ave. on Long Island.
Summer residents on Long Island were not deterred by the pandemic from their plan to buy retail property, with an eye toward starting a seasonal bakery and takeout.
Catlin and Matthew Byers bought 262 Island Ave. from McCalmon Enterprises Inc. for $830,000. Karen Rich and Cheri Bonawitz with Malone Commercial Brokers handled the deal, which closed April 3.
The shoreside property includes a 3,250-square-foot retail building that dates to about 1909. It’s a short walk from the island’s ferry landing, Mariner’s Wharf.
The sellers, Bill and Mary Jane McCalmon, were ready to retire, said Rich.
The property was never on the market.
Long Island is in Casco Bay and is served by the Casco Bay Lines ferry service. The year-round population is 250; summer residents and tourists increase the number to 1,000 or more.
Rich, who lives on Long Island, said that, for a long time, Long Island Store was the island’s only option. At one time, it was open year-round. The McCalmons changed it primarily to a seasonal business, although they continued to offer gas year-round.
Since then, a second store, Boathouse Beverage and Variety, opened and offers year-round service.
The McCalmons owned the store for almost 20 years. Before them, Everett and Annie Clarke owned it. The Byers’s research revealed the store has been in operation since about 1909. It has run intermittently as a general store, post office, take-out eatery and ice cream store, as well as the island’s only gas station.
The couple have renamed the enterprise Byers & Sons Long Island Bakehouse.
It will be run by Catlin Byers and will offer breakfast, lunch, ice cream, penny candy and live lobster. The site will continue to sell gasoline.
Catlin Byers’s family has summered on Long Island since 1904.
“We still have the family house and the land,” she said. “My father grew up going here as a little boy, and I as a little girl.”
Growing up in Falmouth, her father was in the merchant marine, which introduced her to travel. She received two undergraduate degrees, one of them in marketing, which she completed at Trinity College Dublin's business school in Ireland. She met Matthew, who is also in the merchant marine, while she was in college.
After graduate school, she worked for Citigroup as a business analyst in the global products division, then as an advertising rep for the Village Voice, in Manhattan. The couple moved to Rhode Island and started a family. But with Matthew traveling six months a year, Catlin decided she preferred to live in Maine. In 2012, they bought a house in Cumberland. They bought a cottage on Long Island in 2014 and have summered there since then with their three young sons, Max, Oliver and Eamon.
Byers, 37, has long been interested in baking. She’s done wedding cakes and private orders, and worked as a cake decorator in high school and college.
“This was always in my mind,” she said.
Her experience as a business analyst gave her an advantage when writing a business plan. She also consulted with other business owners and local suppliers. Last summer, the Byerses approached the McCalmons to see if they wanted to sell the store.
Courtesy / Byers Family
Edgar Clarke is seen here running the store in the early 1980s.
In March, just as the pandemic was coming to Maine, they signed a purchase and sale agreement.
The Byerses had the chance to back out of the deal, but they decided to persevere.
“We have faith and we weren’t going to back out,” she said.
The McCalmons had done renovations several years ago, she said.so the building was in good shape.
They plan to enlarge the kitchen and add equipment such as a hood vent, fryolaters, convection oven and mixer. The couple is doing some of the work and have hired local contractors to do things like install the hood vent and carpentry.
The purchase and renovations were primarily financed by Gorham Savings Bank. A soft opening is expected in early June. With schools closed, the couple this month moved into an apartment on the second story. The gas pump has been operational throughout. Byers said she plans to apply for a beer and wine license for on-premise consumption.
The operation will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. from May to October. It will offer breakfast and lunch, daily baked goods, such as hand-cut cinnamon donuts, muffins, scones, whoopee pies and cookies. Take-home meals such as lasagna, chicken pot pie, lobster pot pie and lobster quiche are also in the plan.
The plan is to use as many local suppliers as possible, to install a lobster tank and buy from island lobstermen, and to offer local beer, wine and produce, she said.
Courtesy / Byers Family
Catlin and Mathew Byers.
The gas pump will remain operational year-round.
An employee of the McCalmons will stay on.
Byers said that, while the store’s first season might not be as successful as initially projected, the island community depends on services, especially during the pandemic.
“Islanders can’t just run to town to top off the gas tank or fill the fridge,” she said in a news release. “It takes huge logistical planning and effort to live on an island. You have to plan your day, mind the ferry schedule, deal with cars and parking on the island, then deal with cars and parking in Portland.”
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments