BATH, Maine — Two years after drug agents stormed an abandoned downtown Bath apartment house and arrested a Florida couple for operating a methamphetamine lab, a former Wall Street equity analyst is knee-deep in wallboard and plaster amid a “dramatic” renovation that he expects will create four new apartments and help “change the tide” on Elm Street.
When Nils Tristan and his partners at Harbor Line Capital LLC bought the 1890 building at auction out of foreclosure, they were aware of its storied past, Tristan said Tuesday.
Still, while tearing out false ceilings in various apartments, they didn’t expect to find used hypodermic needles, a scale and other paraphernalia that seemed to indicate the exact apartment where the meth lab had operated.
The discovery only made Tristan more determined to create a beautiful building on “somewhat neglected” Elm Street.
A Massachusetts native who for two decades worked on Wall Street — most recently for Soros Fund Management, headed by billionaire and philanthropist George Soros — Tristan first came to Maine about 10 years ago when friends spent summers in the Boothbay region. Soon he, too, spent the summer here and looked unsuccessfully in that area for redevelopment properties.
In 2014, after he was laid off from his Wall Street position, Tristan decided to undertake redevelopment full time. Working with his partners, his uncle Rick Roccio of Massachusetts, a contractor, and his father, the team renovated a Boothbay home purchased by his father.
Now they’ve focused on the Bath building, which on Tuesday had been ripped back to the studs.
“We’d hoped to save some of the [original] elements, but unfortunately, once we got inside and did an inspection, it was pretty far gone,” he said. “It really wasn’t a great place to live.”
Tristan commutes from New York City to work on the house, so he and his uncle stay at The Inn at Bath, where he’s booked rooms through March, he said. They’ve also hired Carl Bailey of Brunswick — and plan to use other local contractors — to help install hardwood floors, natural gas boilers and energy-efficient windows in the four three-bedroom apartments.
For now, they await a construction permit and word from city officials on their sketch plan.
“We’re working really hard to turn this place around,” Tristan said. “There’s such a vibrant community here, with occupied storefronts and a lot of events on Saturday. It’s just a great place to invest.”