COURTESY / DESIGN CONCEPTS
Design Concepts founder Carey Goltz is seen with a customer in her Portland showroom in 2019.
Updated: September 28, 2021
Rising from ashes of June fire, Portland renovation business opens Freeport outlet
COURTESY / DESIGN CONCEPTS
Portland-based Design Concepts recently opened an outlet in South Freeport, in a building next to the "Big Indian" landmark.
After a devastating fire in June that destroyed the Portland headquarters of home renovation business Design Concepts, the owner was soon back in operation with a nearby showroom and has now opened a new location in South Freeport.
“We are thrilled to announce our Freeport location is now open,” founder and owner Carey Goltz announced on the company’s Facebook page, adding that the new space is still “a work in progress.”
Total loss
Goltz started the company in 2007. In 2014, she started leasing space in a 26,000-square-foot warehouse complex at 160 Presumpscot St. in Portland.
The company provides kitchen, bath, flooring and home remodeling goods and services.
“I never advertised,” Goltz told Mainebiz. “It’s always been word-of-mouth. I have a lot of repeat clients and a lot of referrals through them.”
Goltz has two employees and a slate of subcontractors. Her employees primarily run the showroom while she handles general contracting, including design and procurement of materials and products. Residential and commercial projects have taken place in southern Maine from Old Orchard Beach to Freeport.
Goltz and her crew typically have a couple of renovations in various stages each month. Due to supply chain disruptions over the past year, she downsized to focus more on design, consulting and sales in conjunction with other contractors.
Pulling together
On June 11, a blaze destroyed her space and inventory.
“I lost everything I’d accumulated since 2007,” she said.
The fire also damaged other small businesses as well — including medical products distributor TwinMed LLC and boat-covers supplier Canvas Tek, which were leasing space in the warehouse and office complex.
COURTESY / DESIGN CONCEPTS
The same view of the showroom is seen here after the fire.
Goltz was aware that a sub-lease was available next-door at 142 Presumspcot St.
“I knew I had to relocate,” she said. “We burnt down at 2 a.m. on a Friday and, by Monday morning at 10 a.m. I was reopened.”
Goltz used the space to reopen a division of her company, Maine Floor Supply.
Her vendors helped.
“All our vendors pulled together,” she said. “They pulled up with special delivery trucks first thing Monday morning. And other flooring stores reached out to us, saying if we needed to store stuff with them, we could.”
Freeport push
Before the fire ever happened, in February, Goltz had bought a 13,000-square-foot building at 125 U.S. Route 1, in South Freeport. The original plan was to continue operations in Portland and eventually use part of the South Freeport building to open a smaller location. She wasn’t planning to move anything in anytime soon.
The plan changed with the fire.
Now she’s established a temporary outpost in the South Freeport building while also mapping out renovations there.
“The renovation will be quite large,” she said. “There are other tenants there as well, so it won’t be quick.”
The goal is to keep tenants who want to stay and to lease available space.
“I’m not sure how much space I’ll take until the drawings are done,” she said. “I have two partners who own the building with me and we’re pulling that together and talking with the current tenants.”
Goltz said she views the South Freeport location as an excellent, long-term investment in a high-growth area with great potential to draw midcoast clients. She noted other growth in that specific area, such as the partnership next door of two Portland businesses, Goodfire Brewing and Mr. Tuna, which plan to open restaurant-brewery in the space once shared by Conundrum and El Jefe.
“South Freeport is going to grow,” she said. “It will be fun to see the transformation on this end of town.”
Design Concepts will hold a soft opening during the first two weeks of October, at which time the building’s tenants, Pillar's and Great Stuff, will have a large warehouse sale, she said.
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