Courtesy / NAI The Dunham Group
The Class A office complex provides space flexibility depending on tenant needs.
April 5, 2020
Bangor property developed by former NASA engineer sells for $3.1M
Courtesy / NAI The Dunham Group
1 Cumberland Place in Bangor was redeveloped from a former freight terminal in 1989.
The buyer of a 36,000-square-foot Class A office building in Bangor views it as a distinct property in a city with a lot of momentum and upside.
1 Cumberland Place LLC bought 1 Cumberland Place from RSC Realty Holding LLC for $3.1 million. TC Haffenreffer and Sylas Hatch from NAI The Dunham Group brokered the sale, which closed Jan. 31.
The transaction was conducted off-market, Haffenreffer said. In the previous month and a half, he brokered about $6 million in sale transactions in the Bangor market, including industrial and retail properties, due to an uptick at the time of investor interest.
Rocket engineer
The seller, RSC Realty Holding LLC, is owned by Richard Cattelle.
A native of New Jersey, Cattelle first came to Maine in the 1960s to attend the University of Maine, Orono, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering. His early career included several years working for McDonnell Douglas’s test facility in Sacramento, Calif., where he was part of the team that built and tested NASA’s Saturn rockets to support the Apollo program for human exploration of the moon. He went on to serve as a flight controller in Mission Control at Houston for NASA’s Saturn Apollo Program.
“It was an amazing time,” he recalled. “The average age of the Apollo flight control crew was 26. We were all kids. Looking back, it was amazing to be part of that.”
Cattelle has a small flag, framed, in his office, that was carried on the 1969 Apollo 12 flight, the second flight to land on the moon. The program ended with Apollo 17, in 1972.
“I had to find something else to do,” Cattelle said.
So he returned to Maine. Since then, he’s been involved in commercial and investment real estate ventures and other business activities. In 1988, his development company, Cumberland Partners, undertook a project to redevelop 1 Cumberland Place. Built in 1947, it was a former Fox & Ginn Movers Inc. freight terminal.
“There was demand for Class A office space,” he said.
The building was basically a “big concrete block building” with a loading dock, storage and garage bays.
The redevelopment included adding a third story and new exterior, and reconfiguring the interior as an office complex.
“It was basically new construction that enclosed the original building inside,” he said.
Flexible space
Called One Cumberland Place, the resulting three-story facility features a variety of modern suite configurations, from 500 square feet to over 8,000 square feet.
One Cumberland Place was a success from the start, said Cattelle. Today’s tenants include Robinson Insurance and Financial, Creative Imaging Group, Bangor Children’s Dentistry, Cumberland Title, Northern Light Health Foundation and others, according to the Dunham Group marketing brochure.
The property is located in downtown Bangor and is less than 2 miles from I-95. The building is ADA accessible and provides access to a shared conference room, central mailroom and 100 surface parking spaces. It features full-time on-site management.
Cattelle has also been an active community leader. He helped launch Bangor’s Challenger Learning Center in 2004, served on Bangor’s Zoning Board of Appeals and volunteered for a number of other civic and charitable organizations. His service includes past president and director of the Bangor Area Breakfast Rotary Club; past president and board member of the Bangor YMCA; founding board member of the Bangor Region Leadership Institute; and former board member of Norumbega Medical.
He is currently on the boards of directors of the Action Committee of 50 and the Challenger Learning Center of Maine. He sometimes sings in a barbershop-style group called The Landlords. In 2007, he received the G. Clifton Eames Leadership Award for exceptional community leadership.
Good steward
Cattelle said the time was right to step back and sell the property, but he wanted a buyer who would be a good steward.
Courtesy / Richard Cattelle
Developer Richard Cattelle returned to Bangor after his early career as a flight controller for NASA’s Saturn Apollo Program.
“I took great pride in this building,” Cattelle said, who continues to maintain his office there. “As a landlord, you’re in the service business. You’ve got to take care of your customers.”
He found the right buyer in John Thibodeau, who grew up in Bangor and now owns a consulting firm called Windsor Associates in Portland.
Thibodeau has spent the majority of his career helping companies restructure their operations to preserve and enhance their value, according to his bio.
He’s also been involved in real estate investment for many years.
He’s a Bangor native with family still in the area.
“I’ve always had an affinity for Bangor,” he said. “This opportunity came about probably two or three years ago, when I found out about Dick’s interest in possibly selling it.”
That period of time gave Thibodeau a chance to learn more about the culture Cattelle had cultivated around the building.
“He’s very proud of that building, as he should be,” said Thibodeau. “I think it was important to him to sell it to somebody he was comfortable with and who would take care of the property.”
He added, “I view it as a unique and distinct property in the Bangor office market and in Bangor generally. It’s a great location and probably the most parking that close to downtown than any office building I can think of. It’s got wonderful views. I view it as something I expect to have in the portfolio for quite a while.”
The building has great bones and is in excellent condition, he said.
“Over time, I’d like to probably update some of the interior,” he added. “The bathrooms probably need to be updated. We’ll do something with interior lighting and probably the carpets over time. I’ve been thinking through how we might enhance the interior aesthetic.”
Overall, he said, he looks for properties that have “unique characteristics.”
“It’s got to have a good location,” he said. “In a perfect world, it has either parking or access to parking. One other thing we like about One Cumberland Place, and this goes generally, is that the interior space is flexible. In the Bangor market, you’ve got to have the flexibility to combine spaces or break them down. We look for that.”
The property is 85% occupied with a couple of empty units available, he added.
This is his first real estate investment in Bangor. He and a partner were looking at other potential properties earlier this year.
“I think the Bangor area has a lot of momentum and lot of upside,” he said.
A month before the sale of 1 Cumberland Place was finalized, Cattelle sold an adjacent 8,574-square-foot Class A office building at 257 Harlow St. to RJJ Holdings LLC for $495,000.
Haffenreffer represented Cattelle and Jessica Wiltbank from Masiello Group represented the buyer in the sale, which closed Dec. 31.
Courtesy / NAI The Dunham Group
Seeking to divest his holdings, Cattelle also sold 257 Harlow St. in late December.
The property went under contract within a couple of weeks of hitting the market, said Haffenreffer.
“There was a lot of interest,” he said.
Industrial and retail
Other recent closings in Bangor include:
• 489 Odlin Road, Bangor: 99,090-square-foot industrial building sold to Lynch Realty Group LLC (to expand its local footprint) by SSR ll LLC for an undisclosed price. Haffenreffer and David Hughes from Epstein Commercial Real Estate brokered the sale, which closed Jan. 17.
• 395 Griffin Road, Bangor: Commercial building sold to Executive Properties LLC by Stephen and Jane Arey for $1.15 million. Jenn Morin and John Birmingham with ERA Dawson Bradford brokered the deal, which closed Feb. 10.
• 38 School St., Bangor: 11,000 square feet of retail space sold to Hancock Heights Holdings LLC by Maine FD Associates LLC for $500,000. Haffenreffer and Hatch brokered the sale, which closed Feb. 14.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments