ISLESBORO, Maine — The former owner and chief executive officer of the specialty running store franchiser Fleet Feet Sports is the new owner of an island mansion identified this spring by Forbes magazine as the most expensive house listed for sale in Maine.
Tom Raynor, who was an early employee of Nike and who bought the Carrboro, North Carolina-based Fleet Feet Sports stores in 1993, purchased the 8,000-square-foot Islesboro mansion at auction in June, according to a news release from Veena Gaines of Acadia Cornerstone Real Estate. Gaines represented Raynor at the auction.
“Islesboro has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen,” Raynor said in the release. “And this house, everything about it, the unique design, the views, the landscaping, the attention to detail, are all just spectacular.”
The house he purchased, a three-bedroom, three-bath home on Abrams Mountain Road, was built in 2006 and features expansive Japanese garden-style landscaping and a separate tea house on the 15-acre grounds. It was built by billionaire Wall Street executive and sailing enthusiast John Blin, who named it “The Froggery” and built it with the features of a classic yacht. Blin told Portland Monthly magazine this winter that he was leaving Maine and moving to Asia because he believes that is where “the 21st century will play out to a large degree.”
The house was listed for $10.9 million — including two Steinway pianos and other furnishings. When it sold at auction in July, it was sold with no reserve, meaning that it went to the highest bidder and there was no minimum bid set.
Raynor told the BDN on Wednesday that he has an agreement with Blin not to disclose the selling price until it is recorded. The running shoe entrepreneur said he has homes in Crawfordville, Florida, as well as Carrboro and Southwest Harbor, and plans to spend as much time in Maine as he can, though not during all months of the year.
“I’ll be up there from April to November, probably,” he said. “I’ve wintered in Maine a number of years. Not any more. I’m going somewhere warm now.”
He sold Fleet Feet Sports in 2012, and said that although running was his passion for a long time, about five years ago he shifted to cycling.
“I can get a lot more bicycling miles on Islesboro than running,” Raynor said. “It’s good riding. Very hilly.”
Islesboro, located in Waldo County and home to about 600 people year-round, is popular among the well-heeled, with celebrities such as John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Chris O’Donnell and Kirstie Alley hanging their hats there at least part of the year.