COURTESY / MALONE COMMERCIAL BROKERS
Cracker Barrel closed earlier this year. This listing photo still has the signage.
Updated: July 30, 2025
Hot tub retailer to expand into former Cracker Barrel location in SoPo
Rendering / Courtesy Harriman
Great Bay Spa & Sauna is expanding from New Hampshire into 357 Maine Mall Road in South Portland.
Great Bay Spa & Sauna, a New Hampshire company selling hot tubs, swim spas and sauna, is expanding into a 10,030-square-foot retail building at 357 Maine Mall Road in South Portland.
The building was formerly a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, which closed earlier this year after nearly 15 years in operation.
VanParcel LLC sold the property last month to 357 Maine Mall Road LLC for $2.88 million.
The deal was brokered by Mark Malone of Malone Commercial Brokers and John Finegan of the Boulos Co.
“We are a company that sells products that we use, have a passion for and believe in,” Great Bay says on its website. “We don’t just want you to buy our stuff. We want to share the experience with you.”
Cracker Barrel (Nasdaq: CBRL), based in Lebanon, Tenn., told Mainebiz in January that the South Portland location struggled to overcome post-pandemic difficulties.
The Cracker Barrel façade, in a prominent location on South Portland’s retail corridor, was something of a local landmark. After the restaurant closed, the vacant space sparked conversation about what might come next.
Three friends
Great Bay Spa & Sauna was founded in 1976 by three friends who spent a lot of time in the hot springs out west, according to the company’s website. They loved their experience and wanted to bring it back to New England to share with friends and family. They started out building custom barrel hot tubs and business grew from there, later transitioning to selling modern tubs.
In 1986, Great Bay partnered with a California manufacturer, Sundance Spas, to sell the latter’s hot tubs.
In 2003, Jamie Burson started at Great Bay as a warehouse worker and delivery driver, eventually making his way to the sales floor working with customers. In 2019, the owners were thinking about retirement and asked Burson if he’d like to buy the business. Burson and his wife Laura acquired the business in 2021.
Checking the boxes
The goal is to open at 357 Maine Mall Road early this fall, Burson told Mainebiz.
“The exact date is still up in the air, but we are aiming for Labor Day Weekend for a soft opening,” he said. “If that stays on track, the grand opening would be mid-September.”
Photo / Courtesy Great Bay Spa & Sauna
Laura and Jamie Burson.
A gut interior renovation is underway. The build-out is being done in two phases. First, there’s the build-out of the front half of the building, which needs minimal structural changes to complete. Next comes gutting and building out the current kitchen area, which would be completed later this winter.
The search for a retail location in Greater Portland took about 18 months.
“We wanted something in the 6,000- to 18,000-square-foot range, with an ideal size of 10,000- to 12,000-square feet,” he said. “We wanted to be in a high-traffic area with good visibility.”
The 357 Maine Mall Road location checked almost all of the boxes and also has highway visibility with signage on I-95 and Maine Mall Road, “which was a huge win,” he added.
He noted, “The property was originally listed for lease or sale, so my wife and I decided to purchase the property for the business.”
South Portland is the company’s first expansion beyond its Portsmouth, N.H., home base, although the company has offered sales and service throughout Maine from its start in 1976.
“This location is the first of our future expansion throughout New England,” Burson said.
Double-digit growth
The design was provided by Zachary Smith at Harriman, an architecture firm whose locations include Portland and Portsmouth. The general contractor is Bernier Corp. in Exeter, N.H.
Photo / Courtesy Great Bay Spa & Sauna
A sampling of inventory is seen at Great Bay’s Portsmouth showroom.
Many of the 14 full-time employees have been with the company for a long time, including one service provider who started in 1988. The workforce will expand with the South Portland location. Burson said he expects to add three sales staff initially and to scale up to 20 to 25 employees there.
The expansion has long been a dream of his.
“It was always a dream of mine to expand to multiple locations, even before I owned the company,” he said.
Greater Portland was decided on through Great Bay’s partnership with Sundance Spas, said Burson.
“We looked at just about everything retail-wise on the market over the past 18 months,” he said. “We found out about this property a couple of days before it went public.”
Construction on the first phase of the project is underway. The front end of the restaurant was basically wide open, making it opportune for a conversion to a showroom in time for the fall season, which is the company’s busiest time of year, he said.
Investment into both phases of the buildout is expected to be $750,000 to $800,000, including signage.
Financing for the property purchase was provided by Maine Community Bank through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 504 loan program, which provides loans advantageous to borrowers for certain commercial purposes in combination with a regular bank loan.
The industry is thriving, Burson said. Saunas in particular have seen double-digit growth since 2020.
“This year alone, we’re up over 50% to date in sauna sales,” he said.
Another growing segment, he said, are swim spas, also called resistance pools, which have a water current that allows people to swim in place.
He added, “Even though it’s a vast industry, many people say it’s a small industry — it’s a lot of good people who believe in wellness and the benefits of using a hot tub or a sauna.”
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