A Maine-based real estate company bought a prominent downtown Bangor office building for $13 million last week.
Kittyhawk Properties LLC, a real estate company in Winterport owned by Peter and Lisa Caron, bought 1 Merchants Plaza in Bangor, Peter Caron said.
This is the second time the seven-story gray building at the intersection of Broad Street and Merchants Plaza has changed hands in less than a decade. The Bangor Daily News has operated out of 1 Merchants Plaza since 2014.
The building was sold to Hampden-based developer David St. Germain and his company, Sky Villa LLC, for $1.85 million in 2019. At the time of the purchase, St. Germain said he would invest up to $2.2 million into the structure.
St. Germain invested close to $9 million into the building, Peter Caron said.
While an amount for how much Kittyhawk Properties will invest in the building wasn’t shared, Peter Caron said the business is looking to do some cosmetic improvements.
Maine-based businesses will do any work on the building and have already been used in the closing process, Lisa Caron said.
Although some changes could be made, the company doesn’t plan on changing the tenants, Lisa Caron said.
The majority of the building is taken up by the engineering company Haley Ward, which takes up five of the seven floors, while the BDN uses the first floor.
One Merchants Plaza is not the company’s first office building, Lisa Caron said.
Kittyhawk Properties has been investing in properties across Maine for roughly 30 years, Peter Caron said. The business has slowly been growing over the decades, allowing it to now purchase the downtown Bangor property, Lisa Caron said.
“[We] started very small and moved [our] way up the chain,” Lisa Caron said.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify which real estate company purchased 1 Merchants Plaza, as several are involved.