Turnpike Mall (Augusta, ME) has a new owner

[retailisking]

https://www.centralmaine.com/2019/07/07/new-owner-for-turnpike-mall-in-augusta/

[Zayre88]

I hope they find new tenants soon. Maybe stores like: Ocean State Job Lot, Hobby Lobby, Harbor Freight Tools, Aldi or Market Basket.

The tough part is that Augusta already has a lot of retail and two big shopping centers with all the big chains.

[retailisking]

I hope they find new tenants soon. Maybe stores like: Ocean State Job Lot, Hobby Lobby, Harbor Freight Tools, Aldi or Market Basket.

The tough part is that Augusta already has a lot of retail and two big shopping centers with all the big chains.

Augusta is an interesting market in that it's bifurcated between the older retail area around the Turnpike Mall and the newer Marketplace near the Civic Center at the north end of the city. Despite this, Target located its store in the Turnpike Mall area, and Best Buy and Lowe's remain in the immediate vicinity, which gives the new owner a fighting chance at a turnaround. The Turnpike Mall Hannaford closes at 9PM Monday-Thursday, which suggests that it's struggling. The 71K former Sears is for sale separately.
http://www.easternretail.com/properties/me/turnpike-mall/

[Zayre88]

Turnpike Mall has great visibility from the highway. It's still anchored by good tenants. A relatively new Hampton Inn and an even more recent Homewood Suites have opened nearby. A new Credit Union replaced the former Bonanza.

I think the mall has potential to bounce back.

[retailisking]

Turnpike Mall has great visibility from the highway. It's still anchored by good tenants. A relatively new Hampton Inn and an even more recent Homewood Suites have opened nearby. A new Credit Union replaced the former Bonanza.

I think the mall has potential to bounce back.

Harbor Freight Tools was rumored to be a future tenant a while back but it never happened. If they are willing to locate in the dead Aroostook Centre Mall, surely they'd be willing to open a store in Augusta. They're already in Waterville and Auburn, so maybe they think they already have that part of the state covered. As for the 25K space that's proposed for a fitness center, Planet Fitness is already on Civic Center Drive, so perhaps they have already saturated the market. I wouldn't put it past OSJL to buy and subdivide the Sears space. Hobby Lobby averages 55k so I'm not sure if they'd be a viable co-tenant. Market Basket is probably out given the parking limitations and the two pad sites as well as the configuration of the entrance to the plaza, which really isn't set up to handle the volume they generate. The proximity of the Turnpike Mall Hannaford would certainly be an issue as well, and you can bet on them doing everything in their power to gum up the works at the planning board level for years, as they usually do.