Portland real estate firm CORE and Finard Properties, a Boston real estate development and management company with an office in Portland, teamed up to acquire 464,000 square feet of space across 13 buildings at the Pepperell Mill complex in Biddeford.
The purchase price was $17.5 million and the seller was Presidium Group.
“One of our first priorities is to get to know the tenants,” said Todd Finard, CEO of Finard Properties. “We’re spending a lot of time in this initial year listening to businesses.”
The acquisition included buildings 9, 10, 10a, 12, 13, 13w, 15, 17, 18, 37 and 37b and covers 464,000 square feet and 137 tenants across a range of industries. Of that, there’s 100,000 square feet of raw, vacant industrial space. (In total, the 17-acre complex is about 1 million square feet across 16 buildings.)
“Our goal is to ensure that the mill remains a place of lasting value and significance,” said Josh Soley, CORE’s president.
CORE handled the acquisition and is handling the leasing while Finard takes on the property management.
The deal was financed by Bangor Savings Bank and equity raised from investors in Maine and New England.
The deal closed in late December, but was not announced until this week.
Off-market deal
Finard identifies properties that have potential for redevelopment. Its portfolio includes real estate in office, retail and hospitality along the East Coast.
CORE’s services include sales, leasing, consulting, asset management and development.
The two firms formed a separate company called CORE Finard.
The former textile mill was originally built in the 1840s. The 17-acre complex is about 1 million square feet across 16 buildings.
Presidium — a real estate developer, owner, and operator based in Dallas with an office in Portland — bought the campus in 2021. The campus is home to residential and commercial uses.
Soley said the off-market deal came about through his prior relationships with Chris Rhoades, a partner at Presidium, and with Finard.
“I said, ‘Todd, I think this is the future of southern Maine,” Soley related. “We have the opportunity to buy this portfolio at a low-cost basis” with a per-foot price far lower than Portland.
“The town is growing and lively and there’s a lot of heart,” he continued. “It has all of the components of a budding urban hub.”
Soley credited Finard for making the deal possible and for bringing a wealth of development experience that includes other Maine holdings such as One Monument Square in Portland and Mill Creek Plaza in South Portland as well as commercial properties elsewhere in New England and beyond.
Development opportunity
The portfolio includes finished and leased space, finished and vacant space and raw, unfinished space. Part of the attraction was the portfolio’s development opportunity.
“We like to add value, to work with local businesses, to bring in talent,” said Soley.
Ideas include bringing in a major event tenant for a 25,000-square-foot space with cathedral ceilings and large windows; and life science and technology tenants. A 15,000-square-foot space would be suitable for a grocery store, he said.
“That would be a great amenity for the residential developments” at the campus, he said. “We’re trying to make sure we are thoughtfully complementing the new residential tenants with strategic and compatible commercial uses.”
