Courtesy / Roxane Cole Commercial Real Estate
Seen here is the approximate outline of 246 U.S. Route 1 and 9 Fairfield Road.
September 21, 2020
Scarborough’s former public safety complex envisioned as village center
Courtesy / Hebert Construction
Seen here is a schematic rendering of the redeveloped fire station at 246 U.S. Route 1.
Jack Soley, a principal at Portland real estate management, investment and development company East Brown Cow Management Inc., and Tim Hebert, co-owner of Lewiston-based Hebert Construction, have teamed up to redevelop Scarborough’s former public safety complex as a mini-village center with retail, offices, housing and green space.
“The goal is to create a self-contained community,” said Soley.
The two finalized the acquisition of 246 U.S. Route 1 and adjoining 9 Fairfield Road, from the Town of Scarborough on Aug. 31. The price was $1.525 million.
Roxane A. Cole of Roxane Cole Commercial Real Estate LLC and Peter Harrington of Malone Commercial Brokers brokered the deal.
The property comprises a 21,102-square-foot masonry building on 2.58 acres, with paved and unpaved parking lots. The original building was completed in 1966 and additions were made in 1989. It has 340 feet of front along U.S. Route 1 and 360 feet on both Fairfield Road and Westwood Avenue, which run along the east and west sides of the property.
Until recently, it was home to the Scarborough Police and Fire departments, which have moved just down the road to 275 U.S. Route 1.
Long time coming
The high-visibility property was marketed as being desirable for its Oak Hill location in the heart of thriving retail, restaurants, offices, housing, the new public safety complex and schools. The traffic count is 28,300 cars daily.
“It’s a long-awaited transaction,” said Cole, who represented the town of Scarborough. “We intentionally didn’t rush to sell it. We made sure it was fully exposed as a town asset.”
The property’s visibility and the quality of its masonry buildings attracted considerable interest.
“We had a lot of thoughtful offers,” she said. “It’s a cool, iconic site.”
The deal was a long time coming.
Scarborough Town Manager Thomas Hall said he was authorized to dispose of the property in November 2017, shortly after voters approved construction of a new public safety building at 275 U.S. Route 1.
The initial conversation was about repurposing 246 U.S. Route 1 for other public uses. That idea was vetoed after a public hearing. The property was then put on the market.
The offering involved a zoning change. Originally, the back half was in a residential zone and the front was in a town and village center zone. The town made the entire lot a town and village center, which encourages “village style development” with a mix of retail, office, service, and civic and residential uses in an environment conducive to both pedestrians and motorists.
“We wanted to maximize the sale value frankly, because we’re counting on those proceeds to help fund, in part, the new building,” Hall said.
De facto downtown
Courtesy / Roxane Cole Commercial Real Estate
The plan is to redevelop first the former fire station, which is a solid masonry construction.
There were nearly a dozen offers.
Oak Hill is Scarborough’s “de facto downtown,” Hall added.
Soley said that’s why he was attracted to the site’s potential.
“I really admire the community,” Soley said of Scarborough. “It’s one of those places that we don’t necessarily think a tremendous amount about, because it’s sort of peripheral.”
But with over 20,000 employees, there’s tremendous growth potential, he said. And The Downs development has helped bring attention to the town.
“But I’m also enamored with the idea of creating a village center,” he continued. “When I saw the property and realized its proximity to the school district, to Route 1, to all the other infrastructure within a stone’s throw, I thought this would be a great site to create a wonderful community within the community.”
The concept plan includes building residential units, redeveloping the buildings for retail users and offering pad sites for build-to-suit tenants. The site’s “sea of asphalt” will be landscaped, he added.
Conversations are in the works with prospective tenants.
With regard to the residential units, Soley said he envisions replicating his Parris Terraces project. The development, at 60 Parris St. in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood, offers condos aimed at first-time buyers and retirees otherwise priced out of the market. Hebert was the contractor on Parris Terraces.
“That’s the direction I’d like to move,” Soley said.
The time frame for redevelopment is uncertain but the plan is to start with the fire station portion of the building.
Investment for redevelopment is expected to be “substantial” although there’s no estimate yet. The project is financed by Norway Savings Bank.
Courtesy / Roxane Cole Commercial Real Estate
The former police station is seen here.
“They’ve been incredibly helpful and patient, especially during COVID,” Soley said. Noting that the deal was under contract six months ago, “We expected to close much earlier on this property. Norway Savings Bank has gone out of their way to help us navigate the challenges we faced.”
Those challenges? First off, the conversation shifted as prospective tenants were forced to reconsider their plans as a result of the pandemic.
“It’s challenging for any new tenant to look at a new property right now,” Soley said. “It’s gotten better in the last month or six weeks, as folks have normalized into this situation. But even the difficulty of having face-to-face meetings with our vendors — civil engineers, architects, folks you’d typically sit down with to create a plan — all of that has added an extra layer of difficulty.”
Pocket neighborhood
Hebert said he thinks of the vision as a “pocket neighborhood.”
“I think we have a good opportunity to do that here,” Hebert said. “What happens in a lot of towns is that you get residential or commercial. But this is an interesting and unique piece of land to blend the two together.”
Hebert, who also chairs Brunswick wall system manufacturer STARC Systems, is a 2020 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year.
Renovating existing structures is not without challenges.
“You’re always dealing with exiting conditions,” Hebert said. “But because of the quality of the original construction and the use groups we intend to bring in, we’re pretty optimistic.”
Scarborough can use additional residential units, said Harrington, who represented Soley and Hebert in the transaction and is handling the leasing.
“There’s not a lot of residential real estate on the market and not a lot of transitional housing for older people who want to stay in Scarborough,” he said.
Harrington said he’s in conversation with two Portland retailers about leasing space in the fire station.
New public safety building
The town completed the move of its public safety department from 246 U.S. Route 1 to its new digs at 275 U.S. Route 1 on June 1.
The new facility is about twice the size of the old one. Investment into new 54,376-square-foot facility was $21.5 million.
Courtesy / Town of Scarborough
Seen here is Scarborough’s new public safety building at 275 U.S. Route 1.
“It provides for existing needs and for expansion as this community continues to grow,” Hall said. “We were mindful of the future.”
The building was completed in the midst of the pandemic.
“It’s somewhat remarkable that the contractor was able to stay on the job,” Hall said of Scarborough firm Landry/French Construction which, around the same time frame, also took on expedited construction projects for Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories’ facilities in Scarborough and elsewhere when the company expanded production of its rapid COVID-19 tests.
The new public safety building was designed to fit in with the town’s existing municipal campus.
“We made the extra effort and spent the extra money to build with a brick façade in keeping with the town hall next door and the school complex behind,” Hall said.
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