The owner of the Asticou Hotel on Mount Desert Island, who last year extensively renovated the historic oceanfront property, has been accused of stiffing contractors out of $14 million in materials and services.
Eleven contractors from seven different counties in Maine have filed 13 liens against Asticou Hospitality LLC, the company created by Kennebunk hotelier Tim Harrington when he bought the property in 2023 for $7 million.
The major upgrade to the property, estimated to cost $28 million, and the ensuing flood of liens marks a distinct departure from its profile of recent decades, though the 124-year old hotel has long been considered one of the more exclusive stays on MDI. Long owned by a local family, few changes were made over the years to the hotel, allowing it to retain a vintage charm and the admiration of locals and repeat guests.
The most recent of the liens resulting from last year’s overhaul was filed Monday at the Hancock County Registry of Deeds by King Construction Services of Machias, which served as the general contractor on the project. The document, which is an amended version of another lien the company filed in late August, says Asticou still owes the company for nearly $7 million worth of work and materials — half the cumulative total of all the liens.
Other liens range in amount from $21,522.07 claimed by Evergreen Home and Hearth of Brewer to $1.7 million claimed by Stoney Brook Landscaping of Cape Neddick. Carmel Electric of Hermon and Atlantic Landscaping of Ellsworth each say they are owed about $1.5 million, while mechanical contractor Johnson & Jordan of Scarborough says it is owed a little more than $1 million.
Other companies that have filed liens against the hotel owner over unpaid work at the Asticou include Sullivan & Merritt Corp. of Hermon, Twin City Sheet Metal of Brewer, Zimba Company of Fairfield, Standard Waterproofing Inc. of Winslow and Hammond Lumber of Belgrade.
Representatives of Harrington did not respond immediately Thursday to messages seeking comment about the liens.
Jason Barrett, an Ellsworth lawyer representing some of the contractors in their claims, also did not immediately reply Thursday to a message seeking comment.
The Asticou Hotel, which was called Asticou Inn by its prior owners, opened this past summer for the first time under its new ownership, after having been closed for nearly two years for its major upgrade.
The main building was gutted, all the rooms were renovated, and entirely new plumbing, electrical and heating-cooling systems were installed. The project also included the installation of a modern elevator, replacing an antique elevator that was roughly the size of a phone booth, and a bigger kitchen for the inn’s first-floor restaurant, separate bar and restaurant spaces, and a fitness center in the basement, according to documents filed with the town of Mount Desert.
Though a massive 1947 forest fire burned down many old hotels on the island, and new accommodations ranging from budget-friendly motels to modern luxury hotels in downtown Bar Harbor have cropped up in the decades since, the Asticou remained largely untouched.
Originally built in 1901 after a prior fire burned down its predecessor, the hotel still predominantly retains its original exterior look of the past 100-plus years. But with the renovation it aims to draw a more affluent clientele. Rooms go for roughly $500 a night and in the past few weeks it has been profiled both in the New York Times and Vogue.
Harrington is the founding partner of Kennebunkport Resort Collection, which owns 10 luxury hotel properties in southern Maine. The Asticou, which is not part of the Kennebunk group of properties, is the third MDI lodging property Harrington has acquired on his own in the past five years.
In 2020, he bought the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor, where between the purchase price and upgrades he expected to spend $20 million, Mainebiz reported at the time.
In 2021, he bought the former Colony Cottages in Bar Harbor, now renamed Salt Cottages, for $3.5 million, according to Bar Harbor’s property tax assessment records. Salt Cottages, located on Route 3 in the village of Hulls Cove, also were extensively renovated by Harrington, according to the Mount Desert Islander.