PORTLAND – A Bangor Savings Bank branch is set to move into a storefront on Middle Street that was vacated by an ice cream parlor recently.

Cold Stone Creamery moved out of 180 Middle St. last month, said Steve Baumann, vice president of Paragon Commercial Real Estate in Portland, which marketed the property.

Baumann said he got four offers to rent the property, including two ice cream-type businesses and a retail firm. It was, he said, a small “bidding war,” and the bank had the best offer.

A Bangor Savings official didn’t return calls for comment.

The bank has two branches in Portland, on Fore Street and Brighton Avenue, and branches in South Portland and Scarborough. Bangor Savings has 53 branches throughout the state and more than $2.3 billion in assets.

Baumann said the three other companies that were interested in the space would have been new businesses to the Old Port.

That, and the fact that the Middle Street space filled quickly, are signs that the Old Port’s commercial market may be rebounding, according to Baumann.

“What we’ve been seeing in the Old Port is a shuffling of the tenants,” he said. “We really weren’t bringing new retailers in.”

But that has begun to change.

Other commercial spaces that he owns or brokers are taking on new tenants, Baumann said. And a walk in the Old Port shows that several new restaurants and businesses are getting ready to open.

 

Staff Writer Matt Wickenheiser can be contacted at 791-6316 or at:

mwickenheiser@pressherald.com