WESTBROOK — Bids for the purchase of One Riverfront Plaza are expected to be opened Friday.

The building, which has been vacant for over a year, was bought back at auction by The U.S. National Bank Association for $9.2 million. The Feb. 17 auction came after the bank filed a foreclose notice Jan. 4 at the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds.

According to broker Charlie Craig, of the Dunham Group in Portland, the deadline to submit bids for the building was originally set for April 24 or 25. Since “people have requested additional time,” Craig said he was hoping to move the deadline to April 28.

Craig said the opening of the bids will be private and it will be up to the buyer to announce the purchase of the building. 

City Administrator Jerre Bryant said he hopes the buyer is someone from the area.

“We would love to have an entity that’s locally based,” Bryant said last week. “An ideal situation is to have a single user.”

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The 134,000-square-foot, six-story brick building has been vacant since insurers Disability RMS moved to South Portland in November 2015. Disability RMS had occupied a large portion of the building, built in 2004.

The foreclosure of the building came a day after the expiration of a receivership order allowing Portland-based CBRE/The Boulos Co. to commercially market the Bridge Street building now primarily owned by Pendleton Westbrook LLC.

The city has valued the building, on 0.85 acres, with some Presumpscot River frontage, at $20.55 million, according to city tax records. Those records also show Pendleton Westbrook bought One Riverfront Plaza for $23.5 million in 2005.

One Riverfront Plaza was sold by builder Tim Flannery to its present owners about a year after it opened. At the time, Flannery said he had not sought to sell the building, but received an offer that made sense to accept.

Bryant said the city won’t play a role in deciding who to award a bid to, but the city does own the parking garage next to the building. Ideally, whoever buys One Riverfront Plaza will lease the garage from the city, Bryant said.

The hope, Bryant said, is that the company that buys the building will be interested in being involved in the Westbrook community. He said he wants the company to not only offer jobs, but to draw more people to the downtown area.

“Hopefully it’s a good, strong local company with a big workforce that’s looking to grow,” Bryant said.

Kate Gardner can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 125 or kgardner@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter: @katevgardner.

One Riverfront Plaza, which has been vacant for over a year, will be purchased after a bidding process that’s expected to close April 28. 


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