Photo / Courtesy SB Management LLC
Paul Patel
Updated: June 30, 2025
With Boothbay Harbor deal, Maine-based hospitality firm builds its portfolio
Photo / Courtesy Daigle Commercial Group
The Topside was marketed as a turnkey opportunity.
The buyer of a Boothbay Harbor hotel portfolio has added it to his growing hospitality collection in the midcoast and southern Maine coastal region.
A limited liability corporation, 7 Padmavati Hospitality LLC, bought the Topside Inn and the neighboring Mid-Town Motel from Topside Properties Inc. and Boothbay Vacation Properties for an undisclosed price. The portfolio listed at $12.9 million.
Roger Daigle and Benjamin Kramer of Daigle Commercial Group represented the seller in the sale.
“From the moment I arrived at the Topside, I felt quite at peace,” said the buyer, Paul Patel. “It wasn’t just a business decision. It felt very personal.”
The Topside, marketed as an upscale hotel, is at 60 McKown St.
The Mid-Town, termed a “retro” property, is a block north at 96 McKown St.
Together they occupy about four acres.
Topside
The Topside is among Tripadvisor’s top boutique hotels in the U.S. It was marketed as a turnkey opportunity with additional potential to capitalize on Boothbay Harbor’s growing, year-round tourism industry, with investment highlights that included growing demand for domestic travel and outdoor vacations, a rise in short-term visits and extended stays and Boothbay Harbor as a destination for weddings, corporate retreats and vacationers.
The 22-room complex, located at the town’s highest point, includes a main building and two guest houses. Suites and rooms have features such as private decks, soaking tubs, kitchens and vaulted ceilings.
Photo / Courtesy Daigle Commercial Group
The 22-room complex includes a main building and two guest houses.
Amenities include a front lawn, gardens and a front porch. There’s a chicken coop, nicknamed “Taj Mahen.” Another building called the Leeward Guest House has views of the harbor, gardens and an orchard. In addition to flower gardens, the vegetable gardens and orchard yield ingredients, such tomatoes, herbs and apples, for the hotel’s breakfasts.
Common spaces are positioned as a “petite art museum” featuring locally made woodcuts, prints and ceramics; guest rooms have paintings by local artists.
There’s 24-hour access to a guest kitchen, complimentary snacks and beverages, a bar, discounted tickets for local attractions, on-site parking and an electric car charging station.
The property includes a building that’s used as staff housing with a separate manager’s apartment, plus an owner’s residence and a garage.
“The rooms are spectacular,” said Daigle, who knew the buyer from several previous transactions.
He added, “The property does very well and justified the price.”
Mid-Town
The 11-room Mid-Town Motel was marketed as a “small 1950s classic” offering select pet-friendly
Photo / Courtesy Daigle Commercial Group
Mid-Town Motel
accommodations and located a two-minute walk to Boothbay Harbor’s waterfront and other attractions.
The buyer
The buyer, Paul Patel, grew up in New Jersey and took up a career in banking. In 2009, he transitioned full-time into entrepreneurship in Maine with investments in hospitality, multifamily housing, commercial and retail properties. The hotel portfolio includes the Sea View Motel in Ogunquit, the Best Western in Freeport and the Flagship Inn in Boothbay Harbor.
His company, SB Management LLC, is headquartered in Wells and provides real estate management services.
He was attracted to the Topside as a well-maintained, award-winning niche property.
“We are always drawn to location,” he said. “The property is in pristine condition with a very unique character in each suite and each room. The breakfast is very well known.”
The hotel will continue to run seasonally, opening in May and closing at the end of October.
Plans are in the works to make modest improvements in operations and guest experience, and to bring in more local artists. Otherwise the property is in great shape, he said.
There are no immediate plans for further investment into the Mid-Town Motel.
The sellers
The sellers, Mark Osborn and Brian Makarewicz, said the Topside was built in 1865 by Captain Cyrus McKown.
“It became some form of rooming house sometime in the 1930s, as far as my research shows,” said Osborn.
The guesthouses were added in the 1950s and the 1960s.
Osborn is a fourth-generation summer resident of Boothbay. He left his corporate career in 2003, attended Boston University's culinary arts program and moved to Boothbay Harbor when he bought the Thistle Inn. He sold the inn in 2006 and became the general manager of Linekin Bay Resort from 2009 to 2014.
Makarewicz has a bachelor’s in hotel management from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and went into wellness and technology. In 2007, he began vacationing in Boothbay Harbor.
Friends who owned the Topside at the time introduced Osborn and Makarewicz to each other.
The couple said that, from the time they got together, they knew they wanted to acquire an inn.
In 2014, they bought the Topside and performed renovations over the ensuing 11 years that included all of the guest rooms, lobby, dining room, kitchen and bar.
Photo / Courtesy Daigle Commercial Group
The sellers converted a first-floor bedroom into a small bar.
About three year ago, they acquired the Mid-Town Motel and performed improvements that included upgrading the USB ports, installing a 1950s style kitchen and upping the comfort level while keeping “the 1950s vibe,” Osborn said.
“We thought it was important to have a more economical option right down the street,” he said.
Breakfast as event
Both Osborn and Makarewicz love to cook.
“Breakfast was an event every morning,” Osborn said.
In 2019, they came out with a cookbook, “Over EASY and Over the TOP: Breakfast Recipes from the Kitchen of Topside Inn.”
Photo / Courtesy Daigle Commercial Group
The Topside has been on Tripadvisors’ top 10 list of boutique hotels for five years.
In 2020, they converted a first-floor bedroom into a small bar. Additional renovations have included installing a see-through fireplace between the lobby and the living room and rebuilding the dining room. Makarewicz commissioned the creation of a 10-foot-long live-edge table as the buffet for breakfast.
“About five years ago, we were named No. 1 boutique hotel by Tripadvisor in the U.S. and No. 7 in the world,” said Osborn. “I always say it’s not the best hotel: It’s the most loved, based on reviews.”
The Topside has remained on Tripadvisors’ top 10 list of boutique hotels since then.
Osborn has been on the board of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay for three Years and was named chair of the board in late May. He’s on the Boothbay Harbor select board. Makarewicz is on Boothbay Harbor library board. The couple has other hospitality properties and will continue to run those.
“We love what we’ve done,” Osborn says of the Topside. “But 22 years of the seasonal hospitality business, where you’re working seven days a week for six months, as much as we loved it, we also missed so much — weddings, reunions, picnics, vacations.”
Lark Hospitality a hotel management and development group, provides management services at the Topside. Lark and the entire staff were retained through the transition to the buyer.
“It was a very easy transition,” said Osborn.
Photo / Courtesy Daigle Commercial Group
The campus includes a main building and two guest houses, with features such as private decks, soaking tubs, kitchens and vaulted ceilings.
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