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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 17 JA N UA R Y 2 7 , 2 0 2 0 F O C U S C O M M E R C I A L D E V E L O P M E N T Developed by Rockport-based Realty Resources, Bayside Village opened in 2008 as Portland's first private housing development for college students. But in 2010, developers defaulted on the nearly $21 million mortgage. e occupancy rate was 45%. e property was taken over by its lender, KeyBank. In December 2010, KeyBank sold the property to the Federated Cos., which is based in Miami and manages 7,500 units of residential housing with an aggregate value of $1.5 billion. Federated stabilized the property and overhauled marketing and pricing strategies. A year after acquiring the property, Federated had Bayside Village fully occupied. And by 2012, it sold the property to Chicago-based Blue Vista Capital Management. Watson and his partners, under the name West Bayside Partners LLC, bought the property this past September, working with Joe Porta of Porta & Co. Joe Delano at Bar Harbor Bank & Trust arranged 80% of the financing for the acquisition and renovation. e part- nership is financing the remaining 20%. "It was a very straightforward deal," Watson says of the bank loan. "Joe Delano knows a lot about what Port Property Management does. Over the past 25 years, we've bought stressed properties, renovated the units, made them nice-quality apart- ments, and rented them. We now own 1,500 units in Portland and South Portland. So this project is right in our wheelhouse." During the due diligence process involved in the acquisition, Watson explored the property's history. Basing his observations on what he was able to learn and on his 25 years in the business, he says a couple of factors may have prevented the student-housing mission from really taking hold. First, there appeared to be a fair amount of partying and "overexuber- ance," as he says, that attracted police vis- its early in the dorm's history, which may have discouraged student rentals. Portland, ME dunhamgroup.com 207.773.7100 Local Knowledge. Regional Focus. Global Reach. download your 2020 copy at dunhamgroup.com Maine's only comprehensive study and inventory of the Greater Portland Industrial Real Estate Market. greater portland industrial market survey Big enough to serve, small enough to care. sebagotechnics.com • south portland • 100% employee-owned Civil Engineering Land Surveying Local, State, and Federal Permitting Transportation/Traffic Engineering Landscape Architecture GIS Services Land Planning High Definition Laser Scanning Environmental & Natural Resources Commercial Land & Site Development Providing a wide variety of services to companies, developers, and landowners in private/public sectors for projects of all sizes. H O B S O N' S L A N D I N G – P O RT L A N D T H E B E A C O N AT G AT E W AY C O M M O N S – S C A R B O R O U G H C O N T I N U E D O N F O L L OW I N G PA G E » I think it might not have hit on that school pride piece. — Tom Watson

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