NORWAY – Downtown’s most prominent and conspicuously vacant building, the brick Opera House, has been sold to a New Hampshire developer.

Barry Mazzaglia of Londonderry closed Monday on the property, paying Ralph Doering’s asking price of $225,000, said Realtor Bob Bizier, who handled the sale.

Mazzaglia also purchased the Thayer Block at Market Square, which houses the Toy Shop owned by Alice Gruba. Gruba will be moving out when her lease expires at the end of the year and Mazzaglia will be seeking two tenants to split the space, Bizier said.

Mazzaglia’s interest in the Opera House property came only a week or so after it was named by Maine Preservation as among one of Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Properties.

But he was not aware of the building’s status, having come to Maine in response to an ad marketing the Thayer Block in Market Square, Bizier said.

Biz Realty agent Karen Edwards showed him the Thayer Block, as well as other available properties, including the Opera House, Bizier said. Mazzaglia bit on both.

Bizier described Mazzaglia as a young, energetic developer who started out buying residential properties for rental income and has since moved into commercial ventures. This is his first investment in Maine.

Bizier said Mazzaglia, who goes under the corporate name BITIM Enterprises, is especially interested in reopening the coffee shop in the Opera House as soon as possible. Paul Brook’s Woodman’s Sporting Goods, attached to the Opera House, was also part of the sale, and Bizier said Mazzaglia met Brook on Tuesday.

All of the five commercial spaces on the ground floor have been vacant for some time and need to be renovated, and Mazzaglia is planning to do that, Bizier said.

Doering, who owned the building since the late 1970s, earned a reputation among locals as an absentee landlord who did not keep up with required maintenance. Around five years ago, tenants began moving elsewhere, including Grassroots Graphics, Hutchins Jewelers, Da Zone and the Colonial Coffee Shoppe.

“I’m really excited about having someone who will finally get that building into shape,” said Norway’s Downtown Developer, Anne Campbell. “We know a lot of businesses who would like to get into that building, but can’t,” Campbell said, because of the need for repairs in the commercial spaces.

Campbell and others, such as officials at the Growth Council of Oxford Hills, are anxious to talk to Mazzaglia. But so far, they haven’t been able to reach him.

Bizier said Mazzaglia is well aware of the vision of groups such as the Opera House Corp., that want to transform the ballroom on the upper floor into a performing arts space.

“He’s willing to talk to people, but he has his own ideas,” Bizier said. “They need to realize that it is his building and to give this guy a chance.”