The Aroostook Centre Mall in Presque Isle appears likely to avoid a foreclosure auction over an unpaid debt to a contractor, the mall’s owner and the contractor’s attorney told the Bangor Daily News on Thursday.
Mall owner Dana Cassidy owes the Winslow-based contractor Big Dog Mechanical nearly $72,000 for work on the mall’s rooftop HVAC units in December 2024 and January 2025, according to court documents.
A court order last month gave the contractor the right to seize and sell the mall to recover the debt. Big Dog Mechanical has not yet done so, hoping to reach a resolution prior to taking that dramatic step.
That resolution now seems likely.
In an interview, Cassidy said the payment to cover the debt had been sent Wednesday afternoon. Daniel Bernier, the attorney for the plaintiff, did not directly answer a question about whether his client had received the money, but told the BDN, “It does appear this matter is going to resolve.”
A Caribou Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Big Dog Mechanical in April, giving Cassidy 90 days to pay the debt. The court granted a writ of possession in mid-August with the debt still outstanding. The Aroostook County Sheriff’s Office is in possession of the document, Bernier said, but the document has not been served while the sides work toward a resolution.
Cassidy is among the most prominent developers in northern Maine, and for years has sparred with governments and contractors over missing payments and other property issues. The city of Caribou in March foreclosed on a large office building he owned because of tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes. Months later, the city threatened to shut down a Cassidy-owned shopping plaza because of code violations.
Maine Revenue Services temporarily closed a Hibachi restaurant he owns in Presque Isle last fall. Cassidy is also facing a contract lawsuit from a Frenchville Solar Farm that was filed this July.
Cassidy purchased the Aroostook Centre Mall in 2023 after years of tumult and unpaid bills by its previous owners. In an interview earlier this year, he claimed that the property — Maine’s third-largest mall — was on its way to turning a profit.
Reached for comment Wednesday evening, Cassidy claimed he had fired Big Dog Mechanical for poor work and accused the company of taking several HVAC units it was replacing from the roof of the mall.
“Initially, I was told by my attorneys, ‘you can’t pay for something that’s incomplete and wrong,’” Cassidy said.
A series of inspections by the Maine Fuel Board from February 2025 found 89 violations across 12 HVAC units at the mall, according to inspection reports provided by Cassidy and independently verified by the BDN with a board inspector. The reports do not directly reference Big Dog Mechanical.
Neither Cassidy nor his attorney included those claims in legal responses to the contractor’s mechanic’s lien. Bernier did not answer questions about Cassidy’s accusations, other than to say that “those arguments were not raised in court.”
Of the $71,948 owed to Big Dog Mechanical, $26,575 will go to Black Bear Crane, a Hermon-based crane rental agency that was a subcontractor in Big Dog’s work at the Aroostook Centre Mall. An attorney for Black Bear did not respond to a request for comment.