New location allows marine manufacturer to expand retail operations
Courtesy / Acadia Realty Group
A 1,700-square-foot building with a pirate-themed exterior in Sullivan was sold for $250,000 to Nautilus Marine Fabrication Inc., which will expand its retail operations there.
SULLIVAN — Nautilus Marine Fabrication Inc. has purchased 2317 U.S. Highway 1 in Sullivan to expand the retail side of its business.
The 1,700-square-foot steel-frame building, which is on 5.5 acres, was on the market less than two months. It sold for $250,000, in a deal that closed July 29, according to broker Fred Noyes from the Acadia Realty Group, who represented the buyers, Nautilus Marine owners Jim Patten and Stephen Brenton.
“It will be a retail space,” said Lisa Patten, Jim’s wife and the company’s business manager. “We’ll put propellers in there and small items like marine hardware.”
Nautilus, which is based in Trenton, offers marine metal fabrication, abrasive water-jet cutting, propeller repair, sales and non-toxic hydraulic fluid. The Trenton facility manufactures products to order. But there’s also a market for off-the-shelf products, she said.
“There, they’ll be able to pop in and purchase their parts,” she said.
Pirate-themed exterior may stay
The building, which has been a convenience store and gas station, still carries the distinctive, pirate-themed exterior of its most recent incarnation, an auction house and consignment shop called Treasure Chest, which was owned by Keith Young. Noyes said Young decided to sell the property after just a few months of ownership.
The building’s paint job is a nod to nearby Treasure Island, in Flanders Bay. Is the painting a keeper?
“We’re not positive,” said Lisa Patten. “I’m leaning toward keeping it and I believe Jimmy is as well. It fits with the business. And where else can you see a building with a big pirate ship on it?”
Elsewhere, the building is undergoing renovation, with new doors, walls and shelving. It could open by mid-fall.
The location — on a main stretch leading to Downeast Maine — is excellent for this type of store, she said.
“That’s a very high-traffic area,” Pattern said. “There’s a lot of lobster fishermen from the Winter Harbor, Bar Harbor, Birch Harbor area and beyond.” For fishermen and other boat owners in the area, it’s a stretch to reach similar marine supply stores, in Jonesport, Ellsworth and Searsport.
Building on a manufacturing background
Nautilus got its start as Nautilus Marine Engineering in 1983, under Ned Simmons and Winston Ellis, in West Tremont on Mount Desert Island. It was known for high-quality marine metal fabrication and heavy-duty cast bronze deck and shaft hardware.
The business eventually split in two. In 1994, the casting business was sold to an employee. In 1998, the fabrication business was sold to Brenton and Patten, who were also employees. They moved operations to a new facility in the Trenton Industrial Park in 1999 and added the propeller business in 2004. In 2007, they added Water Jet Acadia, a precision cutting business.
In 2009 fire destroyed the facility. The owners rebuilt and now employ 12 people. Brenton and Patten continue to work on the floor, usually handling the more complicated projects.
Brenton and Patten had been considering a second location when this one became available.
“Jimmy is always brainstorming new ideas,” Lisa Patten said. “[The owners had] been considering it for a while and this opportunity came up. The land had been cleared, and there’s a lot of land with it, so we can do a possible expansion as well.”
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