Photo / Courtesy Gurnet Real Estate Group
Collin van der Veen
Updated: June 9, 2025
A Bucksport affordable housing complex has new owner
Photo / Courtesy Gurnet Real Estate Group
The complex consists of four buildings, at 6, 12, 18 and 24 Wenbelle Drive, that date back to the 1970s and 1980s.
A 66-unit apartment complex in Bucksport was picked up by a real estate firm that targets workforce and affordable multifamily investments.
Gurnet Real Estate Group, a real estate investment and management firm with offices in Boston and Portland, acquired Wenbelle Apartments in an off-market deal for an undisclosed purchase price.
The complex consists of four buildings, at 6, 12, 18 and 24 Wenbelle Drive, that date to the 1970s and 1980s.
“It was developed and owned by the same family from the beginning,” said Collin van der Veen, a managing principal with Rylee Knox at Gurnet.
The goal of the project is to preserve affordable housing in Bucksport.
Gurnet’s mission is to deploy capital into multifamily investments that elevate communities by creating high-quality, attainable living spaces, while generating compelling, risk-adjusted returns for investors, van der Veen has previously told Mainebiz.
Earlier this year, the firm acquired a 100-unit multifamily portfolio in Lewiston, also in an off-market deal and also dating back to the 1970s and ‘80s, as an opportunity to acquire well-maintained properties in a growing community where demand for affordable rental housing outpaces supply.
Multifamiliy investors
Van der Veen got involved in real estate as a Bowdoin College student. He has acquired $25 million of multifamily assets in New England. Before launching Gurnet, he worked at Goldman Sachs as an investment banking analyst and later at CrossHarbor Capital.
Knox has a degree in marine systems engineering from Maine Maritime Academy, had a job with the U.S. Department of Defense as a nuclear test engineer and left that to pursue real estate.
At Coldwell Banker Rizzo Mattson Real Estate, he focused on providing education to the public on how to use real estate as a vehicle to build wealth. Since 2017, he has closed over 100 real estate transactions, is one of the largest multifamily real estate investors in Maine, and works as an investor-focused real estate broker.
Knox and his wife run a business focused on safe, affordable housing. He runs Rylee Knox Real Estate in Augusta.
Photo / Courtesy Gurnet Real Estate Group
Rylee Knox
Knox and van der Veen met a few years ago through a Maine multifamily investors Facebook group. They merged into Gurnet Real Estate Group as a joint venture in 2024.
Fannie Mae
With the Bucksport acquisition, the Gurnet portfolio consists of 231 units.
The 66 units are a mix of one-, two- and three-bedrooms. The complex is nearly fully occupied and is in good shape.
“The previous owner took good care of it,” said van der Veen. “We’ll renovate certain units as they turn over. We’ll do some improvement to the common areas and to the driveways and parking lot.”
The complex was originally built, said van der Veen, using financing that came through a U.S. Department of Agriculture program that sought to provide affordable rental housing in rural areas by providing developers with low-interest, long-term loans.
Photo / Courtesy Gurnet Real Estate Group
The complex is nearly fully occupied and is in good shape.
Gurnet acquired the property using a program focused on providing affordable housing in areas with a shortage of it. The Federal National Mortgage Association, commonly known as Fannie Mae, offers a “sponsor-dedicated workforce housing” program that offers advantageous loan terms to borrowers who agree to preserve or create a minimum of 20% of units in a multifamily property at levels affordable to residents earning 80% area median income or, in certain cost-burdened designated metro areas, up to 100% to 120% AMI.
For the Bucksport project, Fannie Mae is requiring Gurnet to rent 52% of the units at rents affordable to tenants earning 80% AMI, as opposed to the 20% minimum.
At 80% of Bucksport’s area median income of $57,688 for a one-person household, the rent for a one-bedroom is $1,236. A three-person household earning the area median of $74,188 pays $1,713 in rent for a three-bedroom.
“The goal of the program is to incentivize operators of apartment buildings, like us, to preserve affordability for a region’s workforce,” said van der Veen.
Market research
The off-market deal came about through the course of van der Veen’s routine real estate market research.
“I realized there was a 66-unit property in Bucksport and I didn’t think there were that many properties at that scale in midcoast Maine and that met the sweet spot of what we look at to acquire,” he said.
Van der Veen reached out to the seller and kept in touch over the course of a year or so.
“We kept in touch and, when he was ready to sell, he called us and it worked out,” he said. “It was a rare deal without a broker.”
Mainebiz web partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments