A Maine-based real estate company bought a prominent downtown Bangor office building for $13 million last week.
Breakthrough Properties LLC, a real estate company in Swanville owned by Peter Caron, bought 1 Merchants Plaza in Bangor, according to Lisa Caron, the real estate agent who represented Breakthrough Properties LLC during the purchase.
“This was a great purchase for them and they’re very happy with how this went,” Caron said.
This is the second time the seven-story white building at the intersection of Broad Street and Merchants Plaza has changed hands in less than a decade. The Bangor Daily News has operated out of 1 Merchants Plaza since 2014.
The building was sold to Hampden-based developer David St. Germain and his company, Sky Villa LLC, for $1.85 million in 2019. At the time of the purchase, St. Germain said he would invest up to $2.2 million into the structure.
While an amount for how much Breakthrough Properties will invest in the building wasn’t shared, Caron said the business is looking to do improvements like installing new flooring or paint.
Maine-based businesses will do any work on the building and have already been used in the closing process, Caron said.
Although some changes could be made, the company doesn’t plan on changing the tenants, Caron said.
The majority of the building is taken up by the engineering company Haley Ward, which takes up five of the seven floors, while the BDN uses the first floor.
One Merchants Plaza is not the company’s first office building, Caron said.
Breakthrough Properties has been investing in properties across Maine for roughly 30 years, Caron said. The business has slowly been growing over the decades, allowing it to now purchase the downtown Bangor property, she said.
“They started very small and moved their way up the chain,” Caron said.
