Courtesy / NXGen Fitness Center
NXGen Fitness Center in Portland will be outfitted similarly to the facility in Scarborough.
Updated: February 5, 2024
North Deering flex building sells as investment with space to expand gym business
Courtesy / The Dunham Group
The 87,515-square-foot Northport Business Park property was marketed as conveniently located and climate-controlled with 18-foot clear height and significant parking and infrastructure.
The buyers of an 87,515-square-foot mixed-use property in the North Deering neighborhood of Portland said it’s a great investment and they plan to expand their Scarborough fitness center business into part of the building.
Elliott Chamberlain and his son Preston Peabbles bought 49 and 75 Northport Drive from L.L.Bean for $5.3 million.
Tom Moulton, Katie Breggia, Sylas Hatch and TC Haffenreffer from the Dunham Group brokered the sale.
Although having two addresses, the property is a main building connected to an annex in the Northport Business Park.
Built in 1972, the property was marketed as a conveniently located, climate-controlled space with 18-foot clear height and significant parking. Infrastructure includes locker rooms with showers, a commercial-grade kitchen with cafeteria, loading dock and access to nearly 600 parking spaces. The site is 3 miles to downtown Portland and just over 2 miles to I-95 and I-295.
L.L.Bean had owned the property since the early 1990s and used it for various operations such as a call center and for photo shoots, until it moved out last year, when the retailer consolidated operations to its redeveloped Freeport facility, said Breggia.
The property was listed in 2021. It initially attracted quite a bit of interest, as the market was picking up again after the pandemic, said Breggia.
“The building is in immaculate condition,” she said.
But it took a while to find a buyer due to the timing and the large size of what buyers viewed as a suburban office building.
“You couldn’t give away suburban office buildings at the time,” said Hatch. “It was a tough time.”
The picture grew more complicated when interest rates started to rise.
The seller was motivated and willing to drop the price from the initial ask of $8 million. The brokers positioned the property as a conversion to flex/industrial space.
And Hatch was talking with Chamberlain and Peabbles, who were looking for an investment property and were also thinking about expanding their NXGen Fitness Center business.
Chamberlain started Chamberlain Homes in Saco in 1988 to build custom homes in southern Maine. Its largest developments are Dunstan Crossing, a Scarborough subdivision of single-family homes, and Cascade Falls, a Saco subdivision with an apartment building and single-family homes.
Seven years ago, Chamberlain and Peabbles bought a former fitness facility at 29 Pleasant Hill Road in Scarborough and started NXGen Fitness.
Looking into further investment opportunities, they liked the Northport Drive property as an opportunity to attract tenants and expand their gym business.
For the gym’s build-out, the goal is to pull a building permit in early February. If construction goes smoothly, the gym could be open by this fall.
The project includes some demolition followed by putting up walls, creating an entryway, and building offices, locker rooms, group exercise rooms and a personal training room.
Financing for the purchase and gym renovations was provided by Androscoggin Bank.
Talks are underway with prospective tenants interested in taking the majority or all of the rest of the space.
NXGen will take about 27,000 square feet. The Dunham Group is handling the marketing to attract tenants for the rest of the space.
“We were looking at it primarily as an investment, but knew we could put the gym in there with the structure of the building and the amenities,” said Hatch.
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