Courtesy / Martha LaFage
The 15 Front St. property purchased in 2017 provides a 250-foot dock with 24 slips to boaters.
July 23, 2018
Community hub envisioned for Belfast waterfront property
Courtesy / Martha LaFage
In June, Paul Naron purchased 7 Front St. in Belfast — 1.03 acres with 175 feet along the waterfront and a 8,500-square-foot building — from boatbuilding company French & Webb. That $1 million-plus purchase, coupled with his 2017 purchase of an adjacent property at 15 Front St., gives him two adjacent waterfront properties that Naron envisions are ideal to create an attractive commercial hub and further enhance the town as a destination.
The purchase of two adjacent waterfront properties on Front Street in Belfast is envisioned as a prime opportunity for creating an attractive commercial hub and further enhance the town as a destination.
Paul Naron purchased 7 Front St. in June from the boatbuilding company French & Webb. French & Webb continues to operate at 21 Front St and 25 Front St.
In 2017, Naron purchased the adjacent 15 Front St. from Consumers Fuel Co., a heating fuel company that dates back to 1911. Consumers Fuel continues to operate elsewhere in town.
Naron also owns and operates the United Farmers Market of Maine, a year-round indoor market located at 18 Spring St. in Belfast. He purchased that property in 2016 from window manufacturer Mathews Brothers Co., which formerly had a showroom and warehouse there. Naron opened the farmers' market in May 2017. Mathews Brothers continues to operate elsewhere in town.
Doubling the waterfront potential
The 7 Front St. property stretches about 175 feet along the waterfront. It is 1.03 acres and includes a long, shoebox-shaped building, formerly a French & Webb workshop, of 8,500 square feet. The purchase price was over $1 million, said Naron’s broker, Michael Cunning of Worth Real Estate.
The 7 Front St. property was never on the market. The transaction came about thanks to Cunning’s acquaintance with both the seller, Todd French, and Naron.
“I’ve known Todd for years and I knew he didn’t have much work going on there, so I talked with Paul about it and then Paul and Todd talked with each other,” Cunning explained.
The purchase price for 15 Front St., which is also about an acre, was $1 million. That property stretches along about 200 feet of waterfront.
Combined, 7 Front St. and 15 Front St. add up to about two acres and nearly 400 feet of waterfront. The 15 Front St. property also never hit the market, and the transaction also resulted through Cunning’s acquaintanceship with the seller and buyer.
At the time of purchase, 15 Front St. included a truck garage, coal shed and marina that included a 250-foot dock with about 24 slips. On the water side of the property, the coal shed dated back to the 1800s. Although the timber-frame structure was rugged, it couldn’t be repurposed, so Naron had it torn down, said Cunning. On the street side, up a slope, the truck garage is a steel-truss-roofed building that Naron retained.
Doubling the water frontage and potentially expanding 15 Front St.’s marina was one advantage of buying neighboring 7 Front St., Cunning said.
Create a landmark
Reached by phone, Naron said he’ll probably develop the former Consumers Fuel garage into a restaurant and/or pub.
“We’re looking for a world-class restaurateur,” he said. “We’ve interviewed some chefs and have some interest. But we don’t know where that’s going yet.”
The idea is to make a restaurant that would become a hub of attraction.
“It doesn’t have to be fancy,” he said. “But we want something that people can really use and it becomes a landmark in Maine. We don’t want to open up a greasy spoon kind of thing.”
Naron said he’s met with an engineer to discuss a flexible design for the existing building. That might include improvements like opening up windows, to better take in the view of the Passagassawakeag River.
“We’ve got the best view in the best town in Maine,” he said. “We’re looking at all kinds of avenues and we’re open-minded as to what can be done. But it won’t be a boatbuilder and it won’t be storage.”
He said he’s also thinking of adding more docks for the marina part of the operation.
For the 7 Front St. building, he said he’s thinking about retail, or perhaps moving the farmers market there, where the vista would complement an eating scene provided by vendors who serve prepared foods, and where there’s more parking.
Naron noted that the purchase of the properties allowed him to remove fencing that prevented users of the Belfast Harbor Walk from crossing the properties. Now they don’t have to loop around the properties to get from one section of the walk to the other.
Originally from Baltimore, Naron moved to Belfast from Florida, where he owned a large hardware store and lumber yard, which he’s sold.
“I started with four employees and built it up to 100,” he said. “The store is still thriving.”
He first visited Belfast 40 years ago, and has been there regularly ever since. Almost 10 years ago, he bought a house across from the farmers' market.
Just what life is
Courtesy / Martha LaFage
Paul Naron opened United Farmers Market of Maine as a year-round indoor market at 18 Spring St. in Belfast.
The idea behind establishing the farmers' market, he said, was about community.
“It’s just what life is,” he said. “What’s more fun than to go to a market and see people who are actually producing the food? It gets away from the industrial food production complex and makes it way better for the farmers.”
Open Wednesdays, from 4- 8 p.m., and Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., vendors offer fresh local produce, seafood, meat and poultry, cheese, baked foods, prepared foods, hand-crafts and more.
It’s one of two farmers' markets in Belfast. The long-time Belfast Farmers’ Market, at 256 High St., was established in 1980 and is also open year-round, on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. From mid-April through October, it’s outdoors in the yard at Waterfall Arts. From November through mid-April, it’s in the greenhouse at Aubuchon Hardware.
Naron said that if he moves the United Farmers Market to the waterfront, he might turn the 18 Spring St. property into a space for the community’s benefit, whatever that might be – perhaps a multi-use facility, for example, with a theater space or a test kitchen, or perhaps expanding on the market’s existing prepared-food offerings by creating a farm-to-table restaurant. The farmers market building, just a block from the Front Street properties, has a first floor and basement that comprise about 30,000 square feet.
Cunning noted, “It’s a testament to Paul that when we were first talking about all of this, within two minutes of acquiring the French & Webb building, he said, ‘You know, we need to turn the existing farmers' market over to the city for public use.’ He wants what will best work for the community. He’s truly thinking about the best interest of Belfast. And he’s an idealist. He doesn’t want things to get tied up with lawyers and rules. He’s just trying to expedite things be so that Belfast can have a richer community experience.”
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