Courtesy / Gourde Family
Long-time friends, Glenn and Denise Levesque and Rick and Penny Gourde shake hands over the transfer of Bishop's Country Inn Motel.
Updated: July 10, 2023
For snowmobilers and business travelers, Jackman motel is a mainstay
Courtesy / Bishop's Country Inn Motel
Along Maine’s northern border in the small Somerset County town of Jackman, Bishop's Country Inn Motel is a mainstay for visitors and business travelers.
Along Maine’s northern border in the Somerset County town of Jackman, Bishop's Country Inn Motel is a mainstay for visitors and business travelers.
“January, February, March and the first two weeks of April, it’s 99% snowmobiling,” said Glenn Levesque, the inn's longtime owner.
There’s also a steady business clientele — folks with government agencies or paving crews or the local mills, say — that’s part of the establishment’s bread and butter.
“It’s too far for them to return home, so they stay overnight,” said Levesque.
When Levesque and his wife Denise were getting ready to retire from the business, they found buyers who were well acquainted with the motel and the community.
Impressive occupancy
“I went through high school here, moved away roughly 40 years ago, but come back frequently,” said Rick Gourde, who bought the motel with his wife, Penny Hutchinson Gourde. “I’m still friends with all the friends I had growing up here. I’m glad to be back.”
The Gourdes bought the motel, at 461 Main St., for an undisclosed price.
The list price was $1.475 million.
The sale was brokered by Roger Daigle and Stan Rintz of Daigle Commercial Group Inc.
The remote location results in a more limited market, noted Daigle.
“Those outlying areas are more challenging,” he said.
Built in 1997, the 10,085-square-foot motel, on 1.35 acres, is in the center of Jackman, within walking distance of several restaurants and pubs and on U.S. Route 201, a federally recognized scenic byway and the main thoroughfare from Canada.
Across the street is a convenience store with gas and food. Features include 22 guest rooms, a large parking lot for trailers and trucks, and one-site access to snowmobile and ATV trails. ATV riders and snowmobilers are able to ride from their door.
The property has been well maintained, over the years and has impressive occupancy figures, according to the listing. The establishment has repeat clientele and attracts Canadian business. Recent improvements include a 60-kilowatt diesel backup generator for the entire operation, new architectural roof shingles, remodeling of most rooms, two new commercial large-capacity washers and driers, new electronic locks, upgraded internet servers and internet phone system, two handicap accessible rooms, a high-efficiency boiler and energy-efficient heat pump hot water heaters.
Courtesy / Bishop's Country Inn Motel
Built in 1997, the motel, on 1.35 acres, is on a scenic byway and the main thoroughfare from Canada. Across the street is a convenience store with gas and food.
Jackman is in the Moose River Valley, about a half hour west of Moosehead Lake and an hour's drive northwest of Greenville, at the southern end of Moosehead. It’s about the midpoint of the Kennebec-Chaudiere International Scenic Corridor, which stretches approximately 230 miles from Bath to Quebec.
The sellers
The motel is full almost every night, with the exception of late April's mud season and December, when folks wants to be home for the holidays, said Levesque.
Levesque and his brother built the motel using modular units constructed in Canada. The motel has many repeat guests.
“Boy, do I miss some of our guests, because they came all the time,” he said. “And they become friends. We’d snowmobile together, ice-fish together, sometimes just hang out in the breakfast room and talk about our families.”
In the small community of about 800 residents, the staff is almost like an extended family, he said.
“I told Rick, ‘Now’s the time to come in. We’ve never had better staff,’” he said.
Levesque has been self-employed for nearly 40 years and it was just time to retire from the motel business.
“It’s a full-time commitment,” he said.
Fifteen years ago, Levesque also opened an Allied Realty office in Jackman, so he’ll continue to run that, and the couple plan to do some traveling at some point in the future.
But when the Gourdes showed up as potential buyers, “I said, ‘We’ve got to make this happen. They’re ideal for it,’” he recalled.
The buyers
Originally from Jackman, Rick Gourde was a maintenance technician for Maine Development Associates, a real estate management company in Bangor.
“I moved away roughly 40 years ago, but came back frequently,” he said of his hometown.
Penny Hutchinson Gourde is from Dover-Foxcroft and has worked in health care for 20 years.
The couple had been looking to relocate back to Jackman and frequented Bishop’s. Gourde has known the Levesques all his life.
“So when it became available, it interested us,” said Hutchinson Gourde.
Buying the property was a way to get back to the area with an income.
“For my husband, it’s a great retirement plan,” she said. “He’ll do the maintenance and I’ll do behind-the-scenes.”
The purchase was financed in part through the U.S. Small Business Administration 504 program, which provides loans advantageous to borrowers for certain commercial purposes in combination with a regular bank loan.
Hampden-based Business Lending Solutions LLC, which provides commercial lending through credit union partners, also facilitated financing. Gourde credited Simon Churchill, a commercial loan specialist with the company, for his help on the deal.
“He made all the pieces of the puzzle come together,” said Gourde.
The couple also credited Daigle Commercial Group.
“Roger [Daigle] and Stan [Rintz] helped us jump through hoops,” said Hutchinson Gourde.
The turnkey business is in great shape, the couple said.
“They took exceptionally good care of the place,” Gourde said of the sellers. “They treated it like their home. If something needed to be done, they got it done.”
The plan is to keep the operation as-is.
“Everything is going to continue the way it had,” said Hutchinson Gourde.
Guests include business travelers and visitors who come for four-wheeling, fishing, snowmobiling and moose-watching, said Hutchinson Gourde. Some come for a week ever year.
The Gourdes said they expect the busiest time of the year to be snowmobile season.
“People will come, stay and, when they leave, reserve the following year,” said Gourde.
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