Courtesy / Kate Sfeir
Spinney’s overlooks Fort Popham State Historic Site, Civil War-era coastal defense fortification at the mouth of the Kennebec River. The Seguin Island ferry also has a terminal nearby.
Updated: August 8, 2022
Phippsburg restaurant and guest house sell for $2.15M
Courtesy / Kate Sfeir
Spinney's Restaurant and Guest House in Phippsburg sold for $2.15 million after several price drops in recent years.
An engineer in Portland branched out his interests with the purchase of a historic restaurant and lodging property on the shorefront at 987 Popham Road in Phippsburg.
Christopher Bartlett bought Spinney's Restaurant and Guest House from Glen Theault and Diane Benson for $2.15 million.
John McCarthy of Legacy Properties Sotheby's International Realty and Bill Sullivan of Keller Williams Realty brokered the deal.
The Sagadahoc County property listed for $2.495 million in 2019. The price dropped to $2.37 million in 2020 and to $2.299 million in 2021.
Built in 1870, it sits on 1.13 acres with soft-sand beach frontage. Totaling 10,926 square feet, it has a full-service waterfront restaurant and bar, an inn, cottages and staff housing. It has views of Seguin Island Light Station and Fort Popham State Historic Site, a Civil War-era coastal defense fortification at the mouth of the Kennebec River, and has been running for generations.
“We’re in the process of digging up the history now,” said Bartlett, who has so far found that it appears to have some history as an old stagecoach stop and possibly as one of the oldest continuing operating restaurants and lodgings on the Maine coast.
The sellers owned the property for about 25 years, said McCarthy, who was the listing broker.
Long-time listing
McCarthy listed the property about two years ago.
“It saw a lot of interest,” he said.
However, he said, it was difficult to find a buyer interested in both the restaurant and lodging sides of the business.
“This is a very profitable venture for the person who knows how to do it correctly,” said McCarthy.
Bartlett grew up in Bowdoinham and has visited nearby Popham his whole life.
“My great-grandparents had a place down there, then my grandparents built a home there in the 1950s,” he said. “My family went every summer.”
A professional engineer, he works for EnviroLogix Inc. in Portland.
A decade ago, he also got into real estate investment and management in Portland.
Last year, he began thinking about other types of investments.
“I said, ‘Maybe I’m ready for a change,’” he recalled.
His realtor, Bill Sullivan, pointed him to Spinney’s. Bartlett was familiar with it from his lifelong visits to the peninsula, which is just south of Bath.
“It took a second to click,” Bartlett said.
He decided to look into it and the two contacted McCarthy last December.
Courtesy / Kate Sfeir
The deck from Spinney’s Restaurant overlooks Popham Beach.
At the time, the property had just gone under contract. But a few months later, the arrangement fell through and McCarthy reached out Sullivan.
“That kicked into motion a three-month process,” Bartlett said. He sold some of his other properties to have cash for a down payment and worked with Total Mortgage in Portland to develop his business and financial plan. Machias Savings Bank provided financing. Lambert Coffin in Portland and Smith Law P.A. in Brunswick provided legal services.
Restaurant lease
Another step was to find a restaurateur who would operate the eatery. But given the goal of reopening the restaurant this season, along with the lodging, it was difficult to find a professional who could step in at short notice.
McCarthy contacted Warren Busteed, Beth Polhemus and Chef Florin Ungureanu of the Contented Sole, a restaurant in New Harbor, a couple of peninsulas east of Phippsburg.
“They had experience working in Popham with their food truck at the state park,” said Bartlett. “So they knew how thriving the Popham summer community is. We started to chat and worked out a deal where they would give it a go this summer.”
The restaurant opened July 8 under the Spinney’s name through a lease arrangement.
Self-sufficient operation
Bartlett credited the sellers with doing “amazing work to make the property function really well” during their 25 years.
Among their initiatives, the sellers had installed a back-up generator that makes enough power for all operations; a state-of-the-art septic system, a desalinization system that produces all of the fresh water needed for the property’s operation, and a back-up generator makes enough power for all operations.
“Making the property work was a major draw for me,” said Bartlett.
Sprinting ahead decades
Some updates are needed.
“All of the buildings are in great shape,” he said. “It was just in need of the next generation to do some updates. We’ve been doing all new beds, new TVs, new high-speed internet. They never had an internet presence.”
The lodging component is well known to generations of visitors, he said.
“The same people booked with them year after year,” he said.
Now Bartlett is looking to expand marketing.
“Now we have an online booking process for folks, so they can find us on the web,” he said. “That’s a big change. And the rates now reflect current comparables.”
He added, “I tell people I’m trying to sprint from 1987 to 2022.”
The business, built by the Spinney family over a century ago, came with hints of its past.
“You open a closet and see the old doors they blocked off,” he said. “Buried in the ground they found a gold-foiled sign from way back that says ‘Spinney’s Guesthouse.’ It has a piece of old leather to hang it on the wall.”
Tourists visit the peninsula for attractions such as Fort Popham and Popham Beach.
However, said Bartlett, there aren’t enough accommodations and there’s no store in the area.
Plans include bringing online “the crown jewel of the property” – a large apartment with a private deck overlooking the river that’s part of the guesthouse and was used by the sellers.
“We’re working on furnishing it and will rent it out,” he said.
The investment for improvements this season is expected to be about $35,000. There will be further investments.
“Big time,” said Bartlett. “There’s’ another old staff quarters and one-level garage. The plan is to build a second story and move staff housing and me up there and to open a store/cafe on the first level.”
The goal is to have that operational next season.
The property has run seasonally, but Bartlett plans to experiment with pushing further into the fall and probably opening earlier in the spring than the previous owners did.
“I’ve been doing Airbnb as a host for four-plus years, so I’ve seen the demand in Maine go deeper into the fall and start earlier in the spring,” he said. “We’re going to experiment this season going into at least October.”
Bartlett has been enjoying the project.
“It’s a fun challenge,” he said.
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