Real estate developer MSP Holdings LLC recently acquired a commercial property in Scarborough, Maine, for $900,000 that includes Scarborough Mini Storage, even though neither the land nor the self-storage business was for sale. The 1.9-acre parcel at 226 Gorham Road includes the 14,100-square-foot storage facility and a 2,400-square-foot building leased to Fiddlehead Center For the Arts, which provides artistic and educational programs for children and adults, according to the source.

Thomas Gadbois, an associate broker with F.O. Bailey Real Estate, approached property owners Vonnie Purington and Roger Sandberg because he believed the setup met the parameters of the buyer, an unidentified retired merchant marine who was looking for supplemental income. "He's owned and improved a number of commercial properties over the years," Gadbois told the source. "I'd been working with him over the past year, trying to find him something. But everything that's listed sells in a heartbeat."

The conditions were right for Purington and Sandberg to sell because they inherited the property from their parents and were too busy to pay close attention to it, Gadbois said, adding that the storage facility was at 50 percent occupancy at the time of purchase, with rent below market average.

The buyer intends to bring rental rates in line with the market while making some improvements to landscaping, paint and signage, according to the source. In addition to 60 units, the storage facility includes four 1,250-square-foot garage bays leased to contractors.

The property is near retail and new commercial and multi-family development projects. The original owners built a house in the 1970s that was later converted into a commercial building that has been a craft store and motorcycle shop. The self-storage facility was added in the 1990s at the back of the land, the source reported.

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