Bangor buyer of the Maine Bank & Trust building eyes more Portland properties
Photo/Courtesy CBRE/The Boulos Co.
The Maine Bank & Trust building is Bangor investor Lawrence Springer's first acquisition in Portland, but he says it won't be his last
A Bangor investor who recently pulled off Maine's biggest real estate deal in 2009 after he purchased a Portland office building and parking garage for $12 million says he's just beginning his push into the southern city.
Lawrence Springer says he's now putting "feelers" out for other possible investments in the rapidly developing Bayside area in Portland. The burgeoning neighborhood along Back Bay, bounded by Forest Avenue, Marginal Way, Congress Street and the Franklin Arterial, will also boost the appreciation rate of his new purchases, he says. Springer closed on the Maine Bank & Trust building at 465 Congress St. and the parking garage at 315 Cumberland Ave. on July 27, buying the buildings from GRE Congress Canal LLC.
"In five, 10 years, there will be a substantial increase in value there, with future development on the Back Bay side," Springer predicts. His company, L.E. Springer Inc. in Bangor, owns properties in Bangor, Hermon and Orono, including office buildings, a storage facility and warehouses. But he has had his eye trained on Portland for a while. "I was looking for the right deal, the right circumstances," he says.
Currently, the 10-story, 67,000-square-foot Maine Bank & Trust building generates between $1.1 million and $1.2 million in revenue a year, roughly as much as the 586-space parking garage, according to Springer. The developer says he plans to maintain business without any more major plans or renovations. But already a deal to rent 135 parking garage spaces has been negotiated with PowerPay, which will move into the Portland Public Market between Congress and Commercial streets. PowerPay, which processes electronic payments for businesses, bought the former market and an adjacent parcel for $340,000 in an auction last December.
Accompanying this bit of news, however, is the announcement that one of the seven tenants in the Maine Bank & Trust building could leave in the next few months, Springer says. The current tenants are Maine Bank & Trust, MaineHealth and MaineHealth Associates, Applied Materials, Compass Health Analytics, Cloutier Barret Cloutier & Conley, Richardson Whitman Large and Badger, and Legg Mason Wood & Walker.
But these rhythms in business do not worry Springer, who says he was attracted to the two buildings because they're diversified. "What I like about the properties, there's always ups and downs in revenue, but their foreseeable future is solid," he says.
The office tower and garage were part of a cluster of Portland real estate owned by GRE Congress Canal, a subsidiary of Guggenheim Real Estate LLC. GRE bought the century-old Maine Bank & Trust building and 12-year-old parking garage as part of a seven-property deal with the Libra Foundation in August 2006. The Libra Foundation was asking $65 million for the properties, which also included the three Canal Plaza office buildings and the former Portland Public Market. According to the Portland tax assessor's database, the sale price was $53.5 million. Portland assesses the Maine Bank & Trust building and land at $5.2 million.
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