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WINTER HARBOR —
Going, going … very nearly gone!
Winter
Harbor is one transaction shy of selling all of the 20 homes, 14 duplexes and
32 apartments left vacant when the U.S. Navy
left town in June 2002. Only one duplex unit
remains unsold.
South Portland
developer Eban Marsh signed a contract Jan. 12
to pay the town $1.65 million for the Misty
Harbor apartment complex located behind the Main Street IGA.
That complex
represents the last major piece of a puzzle the
town has been piecing together since accepting
ownership of the properties from the Navy in
July 2003. Summer resident F. Eugene “Fitz”
Dixon Jr. has been overseeing the process of
finding new owners.
Marsh’s plans
for Misty Harbor include converting the
four eight-unit buildings into condominiums.
“Winter
Harbor is just a great, great community, and this is a nice facility with good
potential,” Marsh told The American. “We’re
looking forward to working with the town in
providing a good, additional source of housing.”
Marsh has
developed condominium projects in
Maine and New Hampshire, but all
of his previous projects have involved new
construction.
Each of the four
buildings has four two-bedroom and four
three-bedroom apartments. Each building has a
stable of detached garages and shares a common
area that includes a playground.
“It’s a great
property that appears to be in really terrific
condition,” Marsh said. “We’ll make no
substantial changes to the exteriors, but we
will upgrade the interiors with new kitchens and
bathroom fixtures, new floor treatments and new
paint.”
Marsh said he
hopes to begin selling the condos by early
summer. The units have not yet been priced, he
said.
“These won’t be
premium condominiums like you see on Mount
Desert Island, but nice properties that should
appeal to retired folks who want a coastal
living experience in Maine.”
Ronaele Winter Harbor LLC
Seventy-nine of
the 80 naval housing units have been sold by
Neil Heidinger of Winter
Harbor, working through Ronaele Winter Harbor LLC, a nonprofit corporation
headed by
Dixon. Heidinger
manages the Philadelphia philanthropist’s Winter
Harbor properties
The 20
single-family homes in the Harbor View complex
sold for $100,000 each. The 13 of 14 duplex
units now sold within the
Ocean Heights complex brought
$145,000 each. The single-level homes are 1,076
square feet and have full basements. The
two-story duplexes are 2,400 square feet and
have garage additions.
Heidinger said
the single-family homes were built in 1959,
while the duplexes were constructed in 1961 and
the apartments in 1971.
“All of them
went through major renovations in the early
1990s, things like roofs, siding, windows,
doors, cabinets,” he said. “They were upgraded
to the point that they can be considered to be
10 years old. They are in very good to excellent
condition.”
Gross revenue
from the property sales will exceed $5.6
million. All proceeds from the sales revert to
the town of Winter Harbor after renovation and
marketing expenses are met. The properties have
not yet been assessed for tax purposes.
The town already
has invested $2.3 million in property sales
revenue in low-risk U.S. Treasury bonds. It
plans to use the interest on those investments
to retire a 10-year, $500,000 bond issue that
will bankroll downtown street, sidewalk, curb
and gutter replacements. That work is expected
to begin this summer, according to Town Manager
Roger Barto.
Heidinger said
the expenses involved in selling the properties
were “many and varied” and included upgrades of
heating, electrical, sewer and metering systems.
In some units, appliances were repaired or
replaced.
“We tried to
keep the marketing as local as we could, and
almost every sale was the result of
word-of-mouth. We wanted to keep it as close to
home as we could.
“Almost everyone
who bought one of these properties already had
some connection with Winter
Harbor. They either live here or had lived here, they had relatives here, they
visit every year or, in some cases, had been in
the Navy here.”
Heidinger had
hoped one-third of the buyers would live in
their new homes year-round, another third four
to six months each year, and the remainder at
least a few weeks in the summer.
“It looks now as
if 25 percent will be year-round residents,” he
said. “A lot of the buyers are in the retirement
process, people who are going to retire within
the next five years. I think in time more and
more people will be here at least half of the
year.”
Few Young Families
Heidinger said
Dixon’s initial goal of using the properties to
attract young families with school children
wasn’t realized. Only two families now living in
the single-family complex have young children,
as do two renters and one owner in the duplex
concept, he said.
“That didn’t
work out because this is set up with a housing
association that includes restrictions and
covenants,” Heidinger said. “They include things
like you can’t have snowmobiles, four-wheelers,
lobster traps or tulip tires in your yard, and
most young people aren’t willing to put up with
restrictions on how they can use their property.
“They’re not
unreasonable restrictions, and they’re necessary
given how close together these properties are.
They were put in place at the town’s request.
The town wants these properties kept up in a
good to excellent manner, and the town doesn’t
want to see them depreciate.” |
