Courtesy / The Boulos Co.
Fifteen acres and 68,175 square feet of building space in Oxford were viewed by buyers as a good opportunity for a multi-tenant development anchored by their company, RideSource Inc.
Updated: August 26, 2019
Growing transportation company buys former Oxford wood products factory
Photo / Maureen Milliken
The Oxford property formerly occupied by National Wood Products of Maine Inc. took almost two years to sell, primarily due to its large size.
A former wood products factory in Oxford is viewed by its buyers as a great site for their transportation company.
But a fair amount of clean-up at the site will have to be completed first.
RideSource Inc. purchased a 68,175-square-foot light manufacturing complex on 15 acres, at 822 Main St., from National Wood Products of Maine Inc. for $375,000. Tim Millett of The Boulos Co. represented the seller and also worked on behalf of the buyer in the deal, which closed July 1.
The complex consists of a large mill building and several outbuildings. Features include ceiling heights up to 17 feet, seven overhead doors and a loading ramp.
The property went on the market in October 2017 and was initially priced at $650,000, said Millett.
“After a year, we dropped the price to $550,000,” he said. “That helped ignite new interest from local developers.”
But it continued to take a while to sell, because the property is big and there’s a lot of clean-up involved. Also, the main building is oddly shaped, because it was built in segments. Some portions of the building are concrete block, others are steel-frame and wood-frame. There’s also a post-frame building that was used for cold storage.
The buyers purchased the property as-is.
National Wood Products of Maine went out of business in the fall of 2017, Millett explained. He was hired right away to market the property.
National Wood Products of Maine was a wood products company that had been at the location since 1975, according to its listing with the Western Maine Economic Development Council.
It manufactured skateboards, children’s furniture, baby cribs, furniture components, knife/tool handles, croquet sets, lobster traps, store displays, musical instrument cases, and end grain wood flooring. It also offered painting/finishing services to other wood workers. Customers included LL Bean Inc. and T. Moser Cabinetmakers. Its products won national awards, and the company was FAME’s 2006 Small Business of the Year and Oxford Hills Outstanding Employer for 2007.
RideSource is owned by business partners Chris Miller and Sam Small.
Headquarters are in the neighboring town of Norway. The company specializes in non-emergency medical transportation and also provides transportation to several nonprofits and schools.
Courtesy / Chris Miller
Partners Sam Small, left, and Chris Miller started RideSource four years ago to serve a growing market for non-emergency medical transportation in rural Oxford County.
Miller, Small and a third partner also own a rental management company called Western Hills Property Group, also in Norway, which they opened in 2011.
Miller and Small started RideSource in 2015.
“We’ve been steadily expanding every year,” said Miller. “That’s part of the reason for moving the operation. This is a larger property.”
RideSource has about 50 employees and about 50 vehicles. Most are mini-vans, many with wheelchair accessibility, and there are several 14-passenger mini-buses. Early on, the company provided 20 to 30 trips per day. Now it’s doing 500 to 600 trips per day. The figures are broken into out-and-back segments, meaning that transporting a passenger out and then transporting them back counts as two trips.
“There’s a lot of need statewide for this type of service,” Miller said. That’s particularly true in rural areas without public transportation, he noted. Users include adult day program participants. The company also works with several local school districts to help with their transportation needs. The operation is funded by reimbursements from several state social service agencies.
RideSource will move into its new headquarters once the site is cleaned up, said Miller.
“We’re heavy into clean-up and renovation,” he said. That mostly includes cleaning out supplies and furnishings, like shelving and carts, plus wood debris left behind by the seller. Renovation includes replacing the roof but will otherwise be minimal to start, perhaps including some partitioning of space plus painting. It’s expected initial rehab costs will be $50,000 to $60,000.
The partners were looking for new property for a while, Miller said. Parameters included enough parking space to accommodate the existing fleet plus expansion. In addition, they knew they wanted to have enough space to rent to tenants that would complement their business, such as a vehicle maintenance operation. They’re in talks with several potential tenants now. RideSource will occupy 7,500 square feet of the space.
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