🔒Sale of Biddeford’s Crystal Arcade building required ‘a unique buyer’

In an unusual deal, the seller of 156-160 Main St. in Biddeford allowed the buyer to begin managing the property and filling vacancies before the deal closed.

“My sellers gave him the time to take it over, assume management before he purchased it and off he went, while he was working with the bank,” said the seller's representative, Jed Rathband of Keller Williams Realty/Rathband Co.

Crystal Arcade LLC bought the 10-unit mixed-use building from 1-3A Beacon Street LLC for $1.4 million.

The property was on the market at least six months and received several offers.

“The building was interesting because it had some deferred maintenance and some vacancies,” said Rathband. “It took a unique buyer. He has a property management company, so he was in a good position.”

The deal was financed locally by Saco Biddeford Savings Bank, “who did an excellent job of piecing together a deal that needed local know-how and understanding as the building had deferred maintenance that typically makes financing a challenge,” said Rathband.

‘Crystal Arcade’

Rathband represented the seller, 1-3A Beacon Street LLC — a Somerville, Mass., investment group — when the group bought the property in 2019 for $1.2 million in an off-market deal.

1-3A Beacon Street LLC  sold the property because they were looking to pivot to other properties outside of Maine, said Rathband.

The building is locally known as both the Wedge and the Crystal Arcade.

“The Wedge” refers to its triangular shape. Built in the 1850s, the building was a type called Crystal Arcade — a  term for a multilevel building with a lot of glass windows and a variety of shops, according to the buyer, Ian Imbert.

Career pivot

Imbert is a real estate investor who started Apartment Central Property Management to manage his holdings and offers full-service management to other landlords in the area.

Apartment Central Property Management is based at 291 Alfred St. in Biddeford.

He came to real estate from a different career all together. Growing up in Dover-Foxcroft, he obtained bachelor and master degrees from the University of New England in Biddeford, working in a preclinical research lab and then at the Maine Area Health Education Center, a statewide health care workforce development program. There, he developed an immersive curriculum that provided hands-on experience for students in health-related fields to work in rural communities.

“It was really rewarding and really promising,” he said.

Learning lab

He made his first investment into real estate with the acquisition of a vacant, mixed-use property in Biddeford.

“I didn’t have any real estate experience,” he said. “But I was eager to find a way to generate more income.”

Despite his lack of real estate experience, he had a feeling that the property had value-add opportunities.

“At the time, I wouldn’t have even known what that meant,” he said. “It was quite a bit of risk to acquire a vacant building, without management, carpentry or business experience. The learning curve was steep.”

The feeling paid off. At the time of purchase, the building had two units — a second-floor apartment and first-floor commercial space. Now the building has two apartments on the second floor and four commercial suites on the first floor, fully occupied.

“I was able to make that building my learning lab, where I developed rudimentary skills — painting, carpentry, resident relations, bookkeeping, property management,” he said.

‘Screeching halt’

Still working at UNE, in 2018 he bought a duplex where he and his family made their home on the second floor and rented the first floor. A year later, he followed that with the acquisition of a three-plex.

In 2020, his job at UNE “came to almost a screeching halt,” he said. A year later, he was on social media and came upon a real estate investor who needed someone to manage his properties in Maine. Imbert reached out.

“That was the beginning of managing properties for clients,” he said.

The vocation turned out to be in demand and lucrative.

“The real estate market was exploding,” he said. “Home prices were soaring. People’s demand for homes in Maine skyrocketed.”

While receiving property management mentorship from his first client, Imbert expanded his client base. Although it was a hard decision to give up his health services work, he left UNE and went full-time into property management. Today, Apartment Central manages 150 rentals in Biddeford and Saco and has three full-time employees, a leasing office and maintenance shop.

Selling points

Looking for his next real estate investment, he came upon 156-160 Main St. Attractive considerations included its downtown location, proximity to his property management business and the history and character of the building.

“What a unique building,” he said.

The 16,000-square-foot, two-story building once housed Day’s Jewelers, and “Day’s Est. 1914” is laid in the tiled entryway. Other long-ago occupants were the Press Herald and Nichols Department Store.

History and character are great selling points for prospective tenants, he said. Another attraction was the upside potential to filling vacancies and rationalizing maintenance and operational expenditures.

At the time of the purchase, the commercial spaces on the ground floor were leased but only two of the six second-story apartments were rented.

Today, there are zero vacancies, The commercial tenants include Wooven, a retail shop that imports goods from Vietnam and Laos;  the Biddeford Vintage Market; and an office for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

Pre-closing deal

A deal between Imbert and the seller, facilitated by Rathband, allowed Imbert to begin building improvements and fill the apartment vacancies before he closed on the property.

“It was September and we were about to signs a purchase-and-sale,” Imbert said. “I was worried that, by the time we closed, we’d be in the middle of winter. I knew that leasing comes almost to a screeching halt in the winter and I didn’t want to have long vacancies after closing on the property.”

By the closing, the building was fully occupied.

An example of improvements performed during that time to the unoccupied apartments included removing carpet and linoleum to refinish the hardwood floors underneath, adding cabinets, updating fixtures and paint.

“They are great units, with a mix of original charm and modern amenities, spacious with separate dining and kitchen areas, big bathrooms with custom tile floors, oversized bedrooms, tall 14-foot ceilings,” Imbert said.

The residential demographics follow a trend Imbert said he’s seeing across Biddeford: “A young, mid- to late-20s affluent population that wants to be close to the downtown amenities offered by Biddeford — boutique shops, salons, restaurants and breweries – without paying Portland prices. Plus Biddeford is unique in that it has waterfront, high-density downtown and rural farmland, so it has something for everyone.”

Future upgrades

For the future, Imbert is looking at the basement as an opportunity to generate more revenue.

“When that was operated by Nichols Department Store in the 1950s, they had finished the basement, but it hasn’t been used in decades,” he said. “It has to be built out and refinished, but it could be additional office or retail space.”

Most of the interior has been updated. Imbert has plans to refinish the exterior, particularly the wood trim and upper-story stucco that needs to be replaced. Upgrades to mechanical systems have begun.

In general, Imbert’s property management approach is based on relationships and not purely transactional, he said.

“We are very relationship-based and on a first-name basis with all or our residents and clients,” he said. “We hold one-on-one showings, in-person lease signings, the residents have a direct contact to a resident manager, we conduct quarterly building inspections and are located right in Biddeford.”

That aligns with his real estate goals.

“My real estate investment approach is to own in my community and to be proud of the buildings that I own,” he said. “I want to provide a comfortable living experience for our residents so that they can be proud of where they live and want to stay for many years.”