Major players in Bar Harbor’s hospitality industry completed a property transfer that included restaurant and employee housing space.
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A Bar Harbor hotelier recently closed on the off-market acquisition of three properties, containing two restaurants plus housing, sold as a package for a total sale price of $5.15 million.
Fernwalk LLC bought 185 Main St., 8 Mount Desert St. and 3 Pineo Court in Bar Harbor from Fishmaine Inc.
Erica Brooks with the Swan Agency at Portside Real Estate Group brokered the deal.
Two-year discussion
“The deal has been in discussions for over two years and we are glad to finally get it over the finish line,” Brooks said.
Fishmaine Inc. is owned by Kristi and Jeremy Bond, local restaurateurs who also own Bar Harbor BeerWorks and the Fish House Grille, and previously owned Jalapeños Restaurant at 191 Main St.
Fernwalk LLC is owned by Stephen Coston, the owner or co-owner of 12 hotels in Bar Harbor and one in Camden under the Stay Bar Harbor Hotel Group umbrella and a 2023 Mainebiz 40 Under 40 honoree.
Brooks was a top producer for the Swan Agency at Portside Real Estate Group’s Bar Harbor office for 2025 with a sales volume of $20.7 million and 16 transactions.
Restaurants, housing
The building at 185 Main St., sold for $3.575 million, is at the corner of two downtown thoroughfares and next to the village green. The Bonds operated Cherrystones Restaurant there. Built in 1880 the 11,000-square-foot building includes the 225-seat restaurant with four distinct bar areas and a basement prep kitchen.
The property also includes four leased retail spaces and two on-site parking spaces. Multiple patio and deck spaces provide outdoor seating and gathering areas with views of the Village Green.
The buildings at 8 Mount Desert St. and 3 Pineo Court neighbor 185 Main St.
Sold for $575,000, 3 Pineo Court, dating back over a century, is a 1,660-square-foot, six-bedroom house plus one-bedroom apartment with garage space and laundry area and two bathrooms that’s always been used as seasonal multi-family housing, most recently for staff quarters for 185 Main St.
Sold for $1 million, 8 Mount Desert St., dating back to 1950, is a 3,060-square-foot, two-story mixed-use commercial space featuring a ground-floor restaurant and takeout space.
Tenants in the three spots, which include a restaurant called Lunch at 8 Mount Desert St. plus shop tenants at 185 Main St. will remain in place.
‘Great people-watching’
The sellers, Kristi and Jeremy Bond, have been in the local restaurant business for over 20 years.
Cherrystones opened in the spring of 2012 and wrapped up operations last fall. Renovations along the way included putting in a new patio and deck and adding a bar.
“It’s a great people-watching spot,” Kristi Bond said of the downtown location.
The Bonds provided employee housing at 3 Pineo Court and in the upper stories of 8 Mount Desert St., where the ground floor is leased to a restaurant called Lunch.
The couple had contemplated downsizing their portfolio for several years. They still have Bar Harbor BeerWorks and the Fish House Grille.
“It just felt like a good time to have a little less on our plate,” she said.
Moving parts
Coston said he was drawn to the opportunity when it presented itself.
“As someone who grew up here, worked here in the tourism industry as a kid and still lives here now, these are restaurants and storefronts I've been driving past, walking past, eating at, meeting people at, etcetera, on basically a daily basis for my entire life,” he said. “At this point I am invested quite deeply here across dozens of different properties, and I think if you're invested that deeply here you don't just pass up the shops next to the Village Green.”
The former Cherrystones restaurant space is already leased long-term to a tenant who is working on opening a new restaurant there, he said.
“I was assigned the leases of the other tenants, and one of the existing tenants took over the one retail spot that had been vacated a month or two ago, so it will be most of the same tenants as before plus the new restaurant,” he added.
The transaction took a couple of years because there were a lot of moving parts to organize, including a variety of buildings with many tenants, plus getting the owner-operated spaces leased and occupied.
“We all know each other and we wanted a smooth transition that the tenants felt comfortable with, getting the leases assigned" and so on, Coston said.
Additionally, both sides of the transactions had their other day-to-day operations to manage. For Coston, in addition to his lodging group in Bar Harbor, he’s got lodging, office spaces, restaurant spaces, housing structures and vacant lots in and out of Bar Harbor to be looked after.
“So nobody involved was drowning in spare time, that's for sure,” he said. “But ultimately, we all worked together on it over time and completed the deal in due course.”