RUMFORD – Selectmen awarded the contract for appraising two publicly-owned building complexes to Farm Credit of Maine in Auburn. The town, however, won’t be paying the $7,000 cost.
Town Manager Steve Eldridge said the former Abbott Farm Plaza a couple of miles west of town will be appraised and the $5,000 expense paid by the buyer, Strategic Retail Advisors of Framingham, Mass., doing business as Rumford Realty Partnership LLC.
The complex, virtually empty since Ames Department Store went bankrupt about three years ago, was eventually turned over to the town. SRA has agreed to pay $230,000 for the buildings and about eight acres surrounding it. It is listed on the tax rolls as valued at $2.4 million.
The deal is set to close on June 1, Eldridge said. He said, too, that SRA signed a lease with its first tenant on Friday. Dollar Tree, a national retailer with more than 2,000 stores scattered around the country, will lease 10,000 square feet.
He said a regional retailer is expected to sign a lease within a few weeks for the former Ames section of the plaza.
The second complex, the former Thurston mill about five miles west of town on Route 2, will be appraised, and the River Valley Growth Council will pay the $2,000 cost, said Assistant Executive Director Rosie Bradley. An Auburn investment group turned the building and about 17 acres over the growth council earlier this year.
Dixfield businessman Clinton Bradbury is in the process of buying the property to use for some of his timber harvesting and retail wood sales business. He has agreed to pay $100,000 for the property. Closing on that deal is scheduled for May 31.
The complex and land is listed on the town’s tax rolls as valued at $1.08 million.
Eldridge said both prospective buyers requested new appraisals.
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