Almost nine months after Linda Bean passed away, her company appears to be scaling back some of its footprint in the midcoast.
Her company, Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine, is close to selling the Tenants Harbor General Store in St. George, according to a listing for the property. The store, which has been for sale since September, is now under contract. It’s listed for $725,000.
And while the company is still working hard to rebuild another retail business in St. George, the Port Clyde General Store, after it burned down last year, there’s some indication that its eventual replacement will be a smaller structure than what Bean — the granddaughter of L.L. Bean’s founder — had initially planned before her passing.
A smaller version of the Port Clyde store is temporarily being run out of the nearby Monhegan Boat Line building.
It’s not clear why Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine is selling the Tenants Harbor store, or whether it is downsizing other operations as well. A representative for the company did not respond to requests for comment, and employees of the Tenants Harbor store declined to comment.
But the moves may reflect how the company has adapted to a new management structure while at the same time trying to pursue a complicated redevelopment project in an area vulnerable to worsening coastal storms.
Bean, who lived in Port Clyde, was a prolific businesswoman who loomed large in the midcoast, buying up various fishing wharfs, restaurants, shops, properties and other ventures.
Before she died in March. Bean was involved with the planning for the reconstruction of the Port Clyde general store and restaurant. But after her death, five trustees have taken over the business decisions at Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine, St. George Select Board Chair Jane Conrad said in September.
Her company had developed concepts for the new buildings as of early last year, former Town Manager Rick Erb said at the time. But Conrad said in September that the plans have been scaled back since Bean’s death.
Adding to the complexity of the project is that, because of rising sea levels, the new buildings are likely to be built higher than they initially were.
St. George officials know Bean’s company would like to rebuild, and they agree that the road in front of the former store, Cold Storage Road, should be raised a few feet to account for rising seas, according to minutes from recent Select Board meetings.
But, since it’s a town-owned road, that process will take time — much longer than it would take the company to do the work on its own.
“If the Bean organization pays for raising that small section of the road, and it’s not the whole road, it’s a small section in front of the store and in front of the boat ramp, if they pay for it, then they don’t have to wait for the town to go through the [bidding] process, select an engineer, have the engineering done, have a public hearing, apply for grants, etc… because we don’t have any money in the budget to pay for that,” said Wendy Carr, a Select Board member, according to minutes from a meeting in November.
Bean’s company had apparently thought the town was going through with raising Cold Storage Road because Erb requested an engineering proposal for it before his retirement. But the rest of the Select Board and the current town manager, Brandon Leppanen, did not know about that proposal, Carr said at the meeting.
Also in September, the town authorized Leppanen to work with the Midcoast Regional Council of Governments to create a tax-increment finance district in St. George.
The funds raised by the TIF district could help the town rebuild the area of Port Clyde damaged by the fire and also fund infrastructure improvements, such as raising Cold Storage Road.
Leppanen did not respond to a request for comment.
