Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
Bath Iron Works is selling a few residential structures, including a historic home, across the street from the shipyard for just $1, but there’s a catch.
Whoever buys the buildings has to relocate them to “a legally permissible site” by Nov. 20, 2027, BIW announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
One of the buildings for sale is known as Deering House, located at 606 Washington St. in Bath. Built in 1900, the house was once owned by Gardner G. Deering who operated the Deering & Donnell shipyard on Washington Street around where the Maine Maritime Museum is today.
The 4,216-square-foot house is valued at nearly $462,000, according to Bath property records. BIW bought it in 2023 for $1.9 million.
It’s a tempting offer considering how home prices across Maine have spiked since the pandemic, especially in attractive coastal communities like Bath. But, the need to move the buildings presents a unique — and likely expensive — challenge, especially given their size and location.
In addition to Deering House, the shipyard also needs to remove buildings at 10 Bath St. and 32 South St., according to David Hench, spokesperson for BIW. The shipyard would give them to someone who’s willing to move them to help preserve housing stock in the area, but they will be demolished otherwise.
BIW needs the area clear as part of a series of changes the shipyard is undertaking in that stretch of Washington Street, including a new parking garage, expanded parking lots and improved traffic flow to Washington Street, Hench said.
“These investments are aimed at recruiting and retaining the workforce needed to support the U.S. Navy and its need for accelerated ship construction,” Hench said.
The shipyard plans to put up an office building to house the Navy’s Supervisor of Shipbuilding as well as BIW’s Human Resources Department in that area and needs space for “related uses” for that new building, such as visitor parking, Hench said.
“Of the properties to be removed, the one at 606 Washington St. appears to have the most intact architectural features and be in the best shape structurally,” Hench said. “The building currently houses a business, which is a vendor for the U.S. Navy.”
The buildings are being sold as is and the buyer is responsible for all relocation costs and necessary permits to move the structures, the Facebook post states. The buyer must also prepare new foundations and utilities for the properties.
A buyer must also prove they have the financial capacity for the job and a “qualified relocation plan,” according to the post from the shipyard. A buyer can take one, two or even all three buildings, if they choose.
BIW has already received inquiries about the offer, Hench said, “though it’s not clear that everyone understands the logistical challenges of moving a large, old house some distance.”
While moving any of the buildings would be undoubtedly expensive and arduous, Clayton Copp, owner of Copp & Sons in Cumberland, said the real challenge for a buyer would be finding a clear lot nearby where they could go.
At most, Copp estimated the Deering House could move 500 feet, and it would likely need to be cut in half — potentially twice — and have the roof removed to fit under power lines and other overhead hazards.
“It would probably move alright, if you had a place to go with it,” Copp said. “It’s not going to go 5 miles. You’ve got to go right close to where it is and there’s no land there.”
Copp’s company moved a house of similar age less than a mile in Augusta earlier this year. The house, designed by John Calvin Stevens, was moved to make way for a Kennebec Savings Bank expansion.
That job cost roughly $100,000, according to Copp. It’s difficult to estimate how much moving a house will cost without knowing its exact size, destination and route to get there.
“You’ll have to find somebody with a lot of money who wants to spend a lot of money,” Copp said. “I don’t see anybody moving it, but I’ve been wrong before.”