FALMOUTH, MAINE — Cardente Real Estate has brokered the $1.1 million sale of a 6,085-square-foot office property in Falmouth. Located at 19 Northbrook Drive, the tenant roster includes Goldman Financial Planning, Maine Laser, Edward Jones and Joshua Rent. Matthew Cardente of Cardente Real Estate represented the seller, Mark Richards. The buyer was CPM-19 Northbrook Drive LLC.
YARMOUTH, MAINE — Cardente Real Estate has arranged the $5.4 million sale of Lower Falls Landing, a 40,931-square-foot office and retail building in Yarmouth. The five-acre property also includes a 7,800-square-foot restaurant and 26 boat slips. Cardente represented the seller, Lower Falls Landing Associates, in the transaction. Jennifer Yilmaz of Applewood Realty represented the buyer, SEKA Properties. Originally constructed as a cannery, the owners redeveloped the property into office space with ground-floor retail.
VERNON, CONN., WELLS, MAINE. — Fantini & Gorga has secured a $2.1 million refinancing for two newly constructed Dollar General Stores in Wells and Vernon. The properties are leased on an initial long-term triple net basis to Dollar General. The Vernon location opened in July of 2017 and the Wells location opened in January of 2018. Chris Miller and Lindsay Feig of Fantini & Gorga represented the New England-based client and arranged the financing with a regional financial institution. Terms of the non-recourse loan included a thirty-year amortization schedule.
BANGOR, MAINE — Out of the Box Ventures LLC, a subsidiary of global real estate development firm Lionheart Capital, has signed Furniture Mattress & Moreto a 150,000-square-foot lease at a former Macy’s location in Bangor. The transaction includes an option to purchase the property. Furniture Mattress & More will backfill the anchor space that previously housed Macy’s at the 650,000-square-foot Bangor Mall. The longtime Bangor-based retailer offers a wide selection of furniture, home furnishings, mattresses and home décor. Out of the Box acquired the former Macy’s in an online auction conducted by Ten-X in December 2017 for $750,000, according to the Bangor Daily News. Other anchor tenants at the Bangor Mall include Dick’s Sporting Goods and JCPenney.
FALMOUTH, MAINE – NKF Capital Markets has arranged the sale of Falmouth Shopping Center, located along U.S. Route 1 in Falmouth. Private investors purchased the shopping center from JPA Management for $21 million. At the time of sale, the property was 89 percent leased to a diverse tenant roster, including Shaw’s Supermarket, Ocean State Job Lot, Goodwill, Sullivan Tire, and Bank of America. Geoffrey Millerd and Justin Smith of NKF, along with Mackenzie Simpson of Porta & Co., represented the seller in the deal.
PORTLAND, MAINE — Remic Properties has acquired the 34,000-square-foot Maine Eye Center at 15 Lowell St. in Portland for $8.2 million. Both Remic Properties and the seller, Maine Eye SPE LLC, were represented by Stan Johnson Company in the transaction. Maine Eye, an ophthalmology practice, is the sole tenant in the building. The acquisition was part of a 1031 exchange that Remic completed following the sale of a property in Peabody, Mass. Tom St. Jean and Mary Lambert of Brookline Bank served as the qualified intermediary in the transaction.
FREEPORT, MAINE — AAM 15 Management LLC has purchased Hilton Garden Inn Freeport Downtown for an undisclosed price. HFF arranged the sale. The 99-room hotel, located at 5 Park St., is the only hotel in its competitive set within walking distance of downtown Freeport, according to HFF. Completed in 2005, the hotel offers 7,500 square feet of meeting space, a restaurant, fitness center, indoor pool and car charging stations. Freeport is 18 miles north of Portland, Maine. Denny Meikleham, Alan Suzuki and Matthew Enright of HFF marketed the property on behalf of the private seller and procured the buyer. AAM 15 will manage the hotel.
TOPSHAM, MAINE — Fantini & Gorga has arranged a $4.5 million loan for the acquisition of a single-tenant medical office property located in Topsham. The Central Maine Medical Center occupies the 15,000-square-foot building. The tenant has 11 years remaining on its initial 20-year lease and leases 100 percent of the building. Keith Wentzel, Chris Miller and Jon Garcia of Fantini & Gorga represented the undisclosed buyer in the financing transaction.
In Southern Maine, we have an inventory problem. An inventory shortage, that is. During the recovery, there has been a steady flight to quality in all sectors including office, retail and, most strikingly, the industrial market. For the seventh consecutive year, the Greater Portland industrial market vacancy rate has dropped. We are now hovering close to a 2 percent total vacancy, which is grossly inhibiting end-users and growth. Throughout 2017, we worked with buyers and tenants that struggle to find suitable relocation and growth opportunities. Multiple offers and off-market sales have become commonplace, which frustrates end-users. We are coaching our clients to remain patient, flexible and communicative in this fluid and competitive market. Accordingly, the limited inventory drastically increased both lease rates and sales pricing for industrial style space. Sale price trends, in particular, deserve a closer look. In 2011, at the tail end of the recession, Class A and B industrial buildings were selling in the $40-per-square-foot range. Sales were almost exclusively going to owner-user businesses who were bullish enough to bet the economy would turn. Today, those businesses are competing with a smaller inventory pool, and against investors looking to diversify their portfolios. Quality industrial buildings are now …
As 2018 begins, it appears that the Greater Portland office market has continued to hold on to low vacancy rates as supply remains low across both Class A and Class B buildings throughout the market. CBRE/The Boulos Co is conducting its annual market outlook; it will be exciting to see the results, which we release in January. I anticipate the numbers to show a steady or slight decrease in vacancy rates across all submarkets but also show a much lower absorption rate, as momentum has appeared to slow down over the last 18 months. Transaction volume is trending far lower than in previous years and could possibly be the lowest number of transactions in the last seven years. However, there were a number a relatively large transactions completed over the last six months that will have a larger impact on the overall vacancy rate than simple transact ion volume. And we must consider that the small number of leases signed could also be due in part to limited supply. The Downtown Portland Class A office market, in particular, continues to operate at historically low vacancy rates. Over the last five years, there has been a steady decline in Class A …