An 87-acre property that was approved last year for the largest housing subdivision in Kennebunkport will be offered at auction on Nov. 10.

The land is minutes from the shops and riverside attractions in Dock Square, and three miles from the Bush family’s oceanfront compound at Walker’s Point. It’s considered one of the last big undeveloped parcels in a town that’s among Maine’s top summer tourist destinations.

A development partnership paid more than $3.5 million for the land. It has permits to build 80 condominium units but recently decided to sell the land and abandon the project, which was called Olde Port Village. Through a spokesman, the partnership declined to specify a reason for the sale.

The minimum bid price is $2.5 million.

The price and the project’s history will have real estate agents and town planners watching the auction’s outcome. Olde Port Village had been in the works since 2006, surviving opposition from neighbors, including a court challenge.

“I think everybody in town is interested in the long-term fate of that property,” said David Kling, who chairs Kennebunkport’s planning board.

The size of the parcel and its proximity to the town’s historic residential areas make the outcome important, Kling said.

The auction company, Paul McInnis Inc. of North Hampton, N.H., is expressing optimism about the offering. It’s advertising the property nationwide as a one-of-a-kind development, 90 miles from Boston, within walking distance of the village and close to Maine’s bold, rocky oceanfront.

“It’s an unprecedented amount of land within such a close proximity to the downtown,” said Chris McInnis, who is handling the auction.

The Olde Port Village property is off North Street. It is owned by a partnership called CDMK LLC. The company had nine hearings before the Planning Board, and received state and federal environmental permits, before winning final approval for 68 duplex condos, 12 multiplex-style units and a recreation center.

The approval wasn’t welcomed by neighbors, who worried about the visual impact, traffic and other issues. One neighbor sued the town and CDMK over the Planning Board action but lost the appeal last month in York County Superior Court.

“It got very careful scrutiny during the review process because it was very controversial,” said Gordon Ayer, a Planning Board member.

Legal issues aside, Ayer said he’s curious about the project’s economics. The parcel is long and narrow, he noted, and any developer would have to build roughly a mile of roads through the complex. That would be expensive, said one of the town’s veteran real estate agents, who is skeptical that the auction will be successful.

“I can’t see a developer coming in and buying it. It’s too much of a risk factor,” said Heidi Maynard, an owner of Pack Maynard & Associates.

Developers aren’t likely to make such a large investment with a struggling economy and a slow housing market, in her view. And they may balk at inheriting a project that has angered neighbors.

A developer could redesign the project for single-family homes, Maynard said. That might be more acceptable in the neighborhood. But those homes would have to sell for $1 million, she estimated, and houses away from the water aren’t commanding those prices in Kennebunkport today.

“You’d need to build a lot of homes to get the money back,” she said.

McInnis said a design change is always possible, although it would need new Planning Board approval.

Kennebunkport has an appeal that insulates it somewhat from the economic downturn, he said, and he expects developers to see the potential.

“I don’t have any doubt we’ll find a good buyer for the property,” he said.

 

Staff Writer Tux Turkel can be contacted at 791-6462 or at: tturkel@pressherald.com

 

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