PORTLAND (AP) – The Libra Foundation, the charitable trust established by the late philanthropist Elizabeth Noyce, is putting up for sale seven properties with a total of 724,812 square feet of space and 1,000 parking spots in downtown Portland.

Among those properties is the Portland Public Market and its skybridge-connected parking garage, which was modeled after farmers’ markets in other cities and was designed to promote economic development in a struggling neighborhood.

Libra hopes to gross more than $65 million, which would be the most expensive downtown real estate transaction in Portland’s history, commercial brokers say.

Libra’s action, while significant, wasn’t unexpected.

In 2001, Libra sold Maine Bank & Trust to the parent company of Chittenden Bank of Vermont for $49.3 million because of federal banking regulations and the estate terms set by Noyce, who died in 1996. In 2002, Libra separately listed and sold four landmark downtown properties that fetched roughly $34 million.

The sale of its remaining downtown buildings takes advantage of a hot commercial real estate market to invest in other ventures.

“The plan was always to sell” the properties, said Owen Wells, Libra’s president. “We kept them longer than we had intended.”

Libra was established by Noyce, the ex-wife of a founder of Intel Corp. When she died in 1996, the foundation received $200 million from her estate that it uses for programs and facilities that benefit the state.

Libra’s decision to sell the Portland properties signals the end of an era in the city’s economic development history that began in the early 1990s when Noyce sought a location for Maine Bank & Trust.

Because of bank failures at the time, some downtown Portland office buildings were half-empty. Noyce wound up buying three properties on Congress Street as a package.

She and Wells, her lawyer at the time, realized they could renovate the office towers and attract new tenants and aid in the city’s economic recovery. Along the way, Libra became the largest taxpayer and private property owner in downtown Portland.

Libra’s Portland property holdings are currently assessed for tax purposes at roughly $46 million, according to city figures. The foundation’s real estate arm, October Corp., is the city’s third-largest taxpayer, with property tax bills totaling $928,256.

Libra’s focus has shifted in recent years. The foundation has put considerable energy and millions of dollars into projects across rural Maine.

The most ambitious has been converting the former Pineland Center in New Gloucester into a showcase business campus, conference center and demonstration farm. Libra also has created a Maine Winter Sports Center in northern Maine.

In Portland, one of the unique elements of the package for sale is the Portland Public Market, which was a bold experiment in 1998 when it opened.

The 32,400-square-foot custom-built market has become a destination for tourists and residents alike, but Wells acknowledged that it has yet to turn a profit.

Penny Noyce, one of Elizabeth daughters and a member of Libra’s board, hopes a new buyer will continue to run the market in some form. “But there’s no guarantee,” she acknowledged.

The Libra sale will be handled by CB Richard Ellis/The Boulos Co., which manages Libra’s properties. The package will be advertised nationally to real estate investment trusts, private equity groups and individual investors, said CEO Joe Boulos.

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