File photo
Holy Donut CEO and co-owner Jeff Buckwalter
August 10, 2022
Holy Donut adds to Portland footprint with new office
Photo / Boulos Co.
The Holy Donut signed a lease for 1,593 square feet of office space at 30 Danforth St. in Portland, shown here.
A few blocks from Holy Donut's year-old Commercial Street store in the Old Port, the maker of Maine potato donuts is leasing new office space, at 30 Danforth St.
"It was time for us to get back to having a space for our leadership team to meet in person and collaborate and regain the synergy that Zoom meetings simply don't have," Jeff Buckwalter, CEO and co-owner of the Holy Donut, told Mainebiz.
While the workforce count is seasonal, the family-owned business currently employs more than 100 people, with an office staff of seven.
"As with most companies, we have a hybrid office model where people are partially remote and come in as needed," Buckwalter said. The company's administration has been working remotely since the spring of 2020, when Holy Donut closed its office on St. John St. in Portland.
Holy Donut opened its location at 177 Commercial St. in August 2021, in a space formerly occupied by Bill's Pizza.
Other Holy Donut locations are at 194 Park Ave. in Portland, which opened in March 2012, and at 398 U.S. Route 1 in Scarborough. The company aims to open in Arundel next year.
Holy Donut's expansion follows the pandemic-related closure of the company's Exchange Street location in 2020. To make up for lost business, the company signed a distribution partnership that same year with Hannaford Supermarkets, detailed by Buckwalter in a Mainebiz podcast interview released in June 2021.
In January, the company also made the "gut-wrenching" decision to leave Auburn only a year after opening, saying the timing wasn't right for that market.
Most recently, Holy Donut signed the lease for 1,593 square feet of office space at 30 Danforth St. The landlord is J.B. Brown & Sons, a commercial property management and development firm that owns 20 properties in greater Portland.
Greg Boulos and Samantha Marinko of the Boulos Co. represented the tenant, while Peter Gwilym of Porta & Co. represented J.B. Brown & Sons.
"The office market has a fair amount of options right now, and the Holy Donut was relatively flexible in their specific office needs, so we had a decent amount of locations to consider," Marinko told Mainebiz.
She said Holy Donut had been open to suburban as well as downtown spaces, and chose 30 Danforth St. for reasons including its layout, turnkey availability and proximity to the company's Commercial Street location.
"The suite had been designed for a travel agency prior to COVID," she said, "but my understanding ... is that the space was never occupied due to the nature of the business and the effect of the pandemic. The finishes were ultimately brand-new and the layout worked well for them, making their desired quick occupancy very much feasible."
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