MACHIAS, Maine — A few things have changed for Ryan French in the past couple of months.
In December, he left his job as manager of the Machias Hannaford so he could manage his family’s business, the French Cellar, which features wine, craft beers and cheese. He did this so his parents, Rob and Betsy, could move to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for his father’s job in shipbuilding.
As it turned out, he also ended up managing a nearly 14,000-square-foot, six-unit commercial building with four apartments.
The French Cellar had been renting its location at 7 Water St. since Rob and Betsey French started the business in 2011. When Machias Savings Bank took ownership of the property last fall, the Frenches considered their options.
“We looked into buying the building, but it needs a lot of work,” Ryan French, who lives in Cutler, said. Contractors told the family it would be cheaper to tear the building down than renovate it. So they decided to pass.
Before they made plans to move to another location, however, they learned Michael and Patricia Sansing were selling the commercial and residential building at 4 Colonial Way, where their business, Whole Life Natural Market, is located.
After doing their research, the Frenches decided it made financial sense to purchase the building and move their business to the only empty commercial unit. Now the French Cellar is located next door to Whole Life. Other commercial tenants in the building include Columbia Falls Pottery, Coastal Soundwaves Music Store, Ray Foster Antiques & Fine Art and Susan West of Northwestern Mutual.
Patricia Sansing said the food market, which has been open since 2003, is staying put. She and her husband decided they no longer wished to own the building with all its rental units.
“We both work full time, and it’s one less burden,” she said, adding she was surprised the building sold so quickly.
French said closing on the $365,000 property was in February.
The purchase made this “one of the largest commercial real estate transactions in Machias’ most recent history,” Michael Atienza, a broker with Magnusson Balfour of Portland, said.
Atienza, who represented the sellers and “guided” the buyers through the process, said this 13,572-square-foot building is “a prime piece of real estate” because of its size, the care the Sansings put into the building when they owned it and its location on a corner lot in downtown Machias.
Atienza said the building, constructed in 1928, originally was known as the “Crane Building.” Over the years it housed a funeral parlor, doctors’ offices, a Bangor Daily News bureau and retailers that included a bakery, a clothing store and a shoe store.
French said the unit where the French Cellar is now located was once home to a yoga studio.
“I have met quite a few people who said they remember doing yoga in here,” he said.
French is pleased about the move and said the new location is better for the business in a variety of ways.
“We’re definitely more visible here which is nice,” he said. “We’ve been doing pretty great.”
The new location also offers a better setup, he said. The old location had two separate rooms, which made the store feel chopped in half.
French said the store carries a variety of hard-to-find wine, beer and cheese.
“The stuff we carry you can’t really find anywhere else [in the Machias area],” he said.
In fact, he often has to travel to Ellsworth to pick up stock because distributors won’t deliver to Machias.
“Ellsworth is about as far as some of the southern distributors will go,” he said.
Although he is still in the process of setting up the new store, a grand reopening celebration is scheduled for 5 to 7 p.m. April 2. The event will feature raffles and tastings.