A vacant industrial building in a highly visible part of downtown Portland has been sold to a company that has developed several condominium properties in the city.

There are no immediate plans for the 2.2-acre property, which includes a parking lot, according to Joseph Dasco, a principal at Reger-Dasco Properties.

“We see the site for being ideal for office space, retail on Congress Street, residential on Cumberland Avenue side,” Dasco said in an interview Thursday. The company is planning for a long-term phased development of the parcel, he said.

Reger Dasco has built condominium and mixed-used projects in the India Street neighborhood and is planning a hotel and condominium development at the former Rufus Deering Lumber Co. complex on Commercial Street.

“We love the location,” Dasco said of the Congress Street property. “Between this and the old Rufus site, we see them as the best sites in the city right now.”

The property, at 385 Congress St., includes a building that once housed the Portland Press Herald printing press, two parking lots and an auto detailing business in a second building. The parcel is bordered by Congress, Myrtle and Pearl streets and Cumberland Avenue. It is next to Portland City Hall and across from the Press Hotel and Portland Fire Department.

The former Press Herald printing plant at 385 Congress St. City Hall is at left.

John Cacoulidis, a New York-based developer, sold the property on Oct. 20 to 385 Congress LLC, according to a deed filed with the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds. 385 Congress LLC shares a West Seneca, New York, mailing address with Reger Holdings. Gordon Reger, CEO of Reger Holdings, is a principal with Reger-Dasco.

In an interview Thursday, Reger said there will be no immediate change to the property or the parking lot leased to Unified Parking Partners.

“We are going to leave it the way it is and park cars there. Everyone needs a place to park, that’s our plan,” he said.

Reger would not disclose the purchase price for the Congress Street property. A $7.5 million mortgage on the property was filed by 385 Congress LLC.

The assessed value of the property is $2.3 million, according to the city’s tax assessment office. The land is valued at $1.4 million and the building is valued at almost $944,000.

Cacoulidis, whose family owns a number of properties in the Portland area, bought the property in 2009 in a deal that included the former Press Herald office building at 390 Congress St. Cacoulidis sold the Press Herald building to hotel developers Jim Brady and Kevin Bunker in 2012. Cacoulidis did not return a phone message Thursday seeking comment on the sale.

The Congress Street parcel was never officially listed, according to Katie Millett, an agent from NAI The Dunham Group who brokered the sale. The property was pitched to several developers and investors and received multiple solid offers before selling it, Millett said.

Any plans for the building will likely be delayed until after the November election, which includes city referendums on rent stabilization and increased neighborhood influence over zoning changes, Millett said.

“There is so much uncertainty surrounding municipal referendum Questions 1 and 2 that developers are in a bit of a holding pattern,” Millett said.

Peter McGuire can be reached at 791-6325 or at:

pmcguire@pressherald.com

Twitter: @PeteL_McGuire

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