Editor’s Note: This story was updated to include comments from the agent selling Kent’s Wharf that its storm damage has been repaired.
A commercial waterfront fishing property on Swan’s Island that was damaged by the back-to-back storms in January — but has since been repaired — is on the market.
Kent’s Wharf has been listed for sale through an online auction. A minimum bid of $1.4 million has been set for the property, which includes two wooden piers and assorted buildings on approximately 1.25 acres. However, the suggested value is more than double that, at $2.9 million.
Steve Shelton, a real estate agent assisting in the potential sale, said the dock has been fully repaired since the storms hit. The owner, David Niquette, spent $175,000 out of his own pocket to ensure that the property was fully operational in time for the 2024 lobster fishing season, which is ramping up for the summer, he said.
Shelton said that if Niquette opts to sell the property, he is committed to finding a buyer who will keep it going as a commercial fishing pier. Niquette founded the business in 1996 and is not comfortable with having the property used for any other purpose, Shelton said.
“He hustled his butt off to get that dock repaired after the storm, just to keep the fishermen going,” Shelton said. “It’s devastating to him that people might think he would sell it to someone who would shut it down.”
Niquette couldn’t be reached for comment. A man who answered the phone Friday said the wharf is open for business, but that Niquette was out of town and would not return for several days.
Franklin Lewis, a specialist with the auction company that is handling purchase proposals for the property, said the deadline for submitting bids is May 30.
The potential sale comes at a time when advocates for Maine’s working waterfronts worry that some private pier owners may decide to sell rather than face the likelihood of future storms causing more damage or other complications — which could add to the challenges facing Maine’s fishing industry.
The Swan’s Island pier is one of dozens of working waterfront properties spread out along Maine’s coast that were significantly damaged by heavy surf and unusually high tides during the two storms on Jan. 10 and 13.
Nick Battista, chief policy officer for the Rockland-based Island Institute, didn’t have specific insights into the potential sale of Kent’s Wharf. But he fears that some pier owners might decide to sell instead of facing the formidable task of making their properties less vulnerable to rising seas and stronger storms driven by climate change.
There are a declining number of places fishermen can use to get out on the water and bring their catch ashore, and if those numbers keep falling, Maine’s $611 million commercial fishing industry and the communities that depend on it will suffer, Battista said.
“People have been collectively holding their breath across the state waiting for these other shoes to drop,” Battista said. “We know pier owners are thinking about it.”
There are working waterfront properties in Maine that have development covenants preventing them from being converted to other uses, but only 32 places have those restrictions despite there being “hundreds” such properties in the state, Battista said. Kent’s Wharf is not one of them, he added.
The wharf on Steamboat Hill Road is one of more than a half-dozen fishing piers clustered on the western side of Burnt Coat Harbor, including the Swan’s Island Fisherman’s Co-op.
The offshore island is about six miles southwest of Mount Desert Island. It’s accessible only by boat and has a year-round population of roughly 350 that swells to more than 1,000 in summer.
About 100 of the island’s year-round residents work as fishermen, according to the town’s 2023 comprehensive plan.
Following the storms in January, Kent’s Wharf had successfully applied for a $7,500 grant from the Island Institute, which has distributed $250,000 to more than 50 working waterfront businesses for smaller repairs. At Kent’s Wharf, the money helped pay for installing new pilings and replacing flood-damaged electrical wiring, according to the Island Institute.
The state will provide more funding this summer to privately owned fishing piers that were damaged, provided that the repairs include better protections from climate change-related storm surge.
The Legislature this month approved a budget with more than $25 million in direct state aid for commercial piers. Those facilities do not qualify for direct federal reimbursement, which is reserved for public infrastructure.
Pier owners will have to apply for the state funding, which is not expected to be available until mid- to late summer. Piers that serve larger numbers of fishermen will be prioritized to maximize the economic impact, state officials have said.
In addition to the two piers at Kent’s Wharf, the proposed sale would include two pier buildings and a 2,200-square-foot main operations building with space for retail, working and storage, according to the listing. An upstairs office, a newly constructed freezer building, storage units, a 15,000-gallon gasoline tank, two fuel pumps and associated equipment and vehicles also would be included.
From 2015 through 2023, the pier on average handled 786,500 pounds of lobster each year that fishermen landed at the property, according to the listing.
Battista said the pier has four full-time and four part-time employees and buys lobster from about 30 local fishermen.