There is strong interest from potential buyers of the Aroostook Centre Mall in Presque Isle, but no deal has been signed yet, according to executives at the auction website that lists the mall for sale.
“There is strong interest from potential buyers with sophisticated questions,” said Joseph Cuomo, senior managing director of Ten-X, an online auction and commercial real estate seller based in Irvine, California. “So that’s positive.”
Unlike the Bangor Mall, which went through a Ten-X live online bidding auction from Monday to Wednesday, Feb. 25-27, the Aroostook mall is being sold via a traditional commercial real estate sale.
Ten-X said the listing on its website under a program called “offer select” adds marketing might to reach potential buyers who otherwise might not have known the mall is for sale. But real estate agents at CBRE and The Boulos Co. in Maine are handling the details of the sale and will close it like any regular commercial sale.
The mall is being sold for a best offer.
Interested buyers can submit offers online while sellers can review offers, provide guidance and select a winning offer.
“It is a non-auction format where we add technology and marketing to expose the mall to a diverse pool of buyers around the country and around the world,” Cuomo said.
The Aroostook mall was listed on the Ten-X website in mid-December.
Cuomo said he stays in contact with the sellers about whether they want to keep the property listed on the website. He said he expects it to remain listed another 30-60 days.
“There’s been a lot of interest and activity speaking to potential buyers,” he said. “But no deal has closed yet. We hope something will happen over the next couple months.”
The property has drawn interest from developers, big box mall owners and others.
One of the highlights of the mall is the Lowe’s outparcel, which has a lease until 2026.
“That brings value,” Cuomo said.
If the mall sells, Ten-X will get a fee of $37,500 or 1 percent of the sale price, whichever is greater, said David Amezquita, senior associate at Ten-X.
Like the Bangor Mall, the Aroostook Centre Mall ran into trouble when its owner defaulted on a loan in 2017.
The Aroostook mall was up for auction in October 2017 but received no interested buyers, so the property’s mortgage holder, Wells Fargo, bought it for $4 million, less than one-third of its assessed value at the time. The city of Presque Isle’s assessor revalued the mall at $8,649,450 in 2018.
This article originally appeared on www.bangordailynews.com.
