New use for vacant South Portland building
Photo / Maureen Milliken
New owners plan to move into 185 Cottage Road in South Portland, which will house a coffee bar and commercial baking space.
A long-empty South Portland building, originally built as a grocery store, will soon house a coffee bar, commercial baking kitchen and possibly coffee bean roasting. Three businesses are leasing 5,293-square foot building at 185 Cottage Road in a deal brokered by Craig Church of Magnusson Balfour of Portland, representing the landlord, Berkeley Properties. The broker who represented the tenants was Elisabeth Echevarria of F.O. Bailey Real Estate.
The owners of Cape Whoopies, Marcia Wiggins, and White Cap Coffee, Ben Graffius and Tom Marlow, are leasing the space and plan to occupy it in the spring after renovations. Both businesses operate out of Food Fork Lab in Portland. Rwanda Bean Coffee owners Mike Mwenedata and Nick Mazuroski are also part of the new operation.
The Forecaster reported that the business will include a coffee bar, the whoopie pie bakery, as well as possible coffee bean roasting in the future by Rwanda Bean Coffee, which now roasts at Arabica in Portland. The company also cold brews coffee.
The building most recently housed Cherished Possessions consignment furniture and home goods store, and has been empty since November 2016, and is now at 64 Auburn St. in Portland.
Church said the building had been under contract three different times.
The free-standing building, on the corner of Cottage and Walnut Street, was constructed in 1959 and was originally the Hillside Red & White grocery. Over the decades it has housed a variety of tenants.
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