Historic Gardiner building sold by Camden National Bank poised for a creative reboot

Courtesy / CBRE|The Boulos Co. Camden National Bank's building at 252 Water St. in Gardiner sold for $287,500, a discount from the original asking price of $425,000.

Courtesy / Gardiner Public Library Community Archives Room What's known as the Milliken Block, 252 Water St. in Gardiner, was built in 1876.

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By Laurie Schreiber

GARDINER — Under new ownership, plans are underway to install new tenants in a historic building in downtown Gardiner that until recently was owned by Camden National Bank.

Located at 252 Water St., this was one of the properties acquired by Camden National Bank when it purchased the Bank of Maine in October 2015. The brick office building, called the Milliken Block, dates back to 1876 and comprises 11,510 square feet on three stories. Its 0.14-acre parcel includes six on-site parking spaces. The property sold for $287,500.

Chris Paszyc and Tim Millett of CBRE|The Boulos Co. brokered the deal, which closed April 13.

The property was listed in January 2016 at $425,000, but didn’t gain traction until a price drop to $295,000, said Millett.

“At that price we saw a lot of activity,” he said.

It was the last of three buildings in downtown Gardiner handled by CBRE|The Boulos Co. for Camden National (although the firm is handling other Camden National properties outside of Gardiner). The other two, which sold more quickly, were at 192 Water St. and 143-165 Water St.: The others were also historic buildings. The brokerage also handled the sale of a small parking lot, at 5 Depot Square, for the bank.

At 252 Water St., the first interested party, and ultimate buyer, was Mike Gent, who had moved to Gardiner in 2014 with his new bride, who has family in the city. Gent has a small manufacturing company in Pennsylvania that makes hydraulic pumps and electrical feed-throughs.

“When I proposed to my wife, she said, ‘That’s great, but I’m moving to Maine,’” he said. “I liked Maine anyway, so I said, ‘OK.’”

Gent still has his company in Pennsylvania, so he travels back and forth. He’s also an artist who enjoys painting and had been looking for a couple of years for studio space.

That’s where 252 Water St. came in.

“My keen interest in it was for studio space for artistic work,” he said. “The whole third floor is perfect for that. And it appeared the first two floors were rentable, so it was a no-brainer.”

Gent foresees a collaborative artists' workshop on the third floor. It was gutted and needed renovation first, including electrical and plumbing installations. He expected a first-stage investment of about $40,000.

“The city’s been very helpful and encouraging, and Gardiner is a great place for anybody to invest in,” he said.

He’s already got tenants lined up to move into the first two floors, which are in good condition as finished offices, within about two months.

Plans for other buildings taking shape

In related developments, a pre-development work plan is underway for five buildings at 149-167 Water St. that were sold for $1 by Camden National to Gardiner Main Street in October 2016.

Gardiner Main Street Executive Director Patrick Wright said the organization received a Davis Family Foundation grant of $25,000 as part of its stabilization and phase 1 pre-development investigation, as well as a façade improvement grant from the city. The organization has moved its offices and its co-working space into a 3,500-square-foot finished portion of the total 22,000 square feet of space. The rest is in shell condition, but the structure had been stabilized since the early 2000s due to Bank of Maine’s investment of about $1 million, Wright said. Although the five buildings were built separately at various points of the 1800s, and have separate entrances, they’re connected and are together known as the Dingley Block, he said.

As a condition of Camden National’s gift, the organization must have the space redeveloped within 60 months of the closing in October 2016. The plan so far involves creating an artisan/maker space on the first floor, and live/work studios for entrepreneurs on the upper floors, he said.

“We have creative people here, and some folks will be utilizing one of the spaces for a pop-up space this summer,” Wright said. “We want to lure more of those creative types.”