LEWISTON — Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque bought the Peck Building from L.L. Bean last week.
The sale, however, does not mean L.L. Bean is going anywhere. The famous Maine brand will continue to operate a call center there, while Levesque said he has no plans for the Main Street property beyond adding a flagpole and maybe using more of the parking garage.
“It’s an iconic building in Lewiston, so critical to our past, (our) present,” he said. “I’m kind of honored to be that caretaker for that building. The whole property, actually.”
Levesque’s Aegean Development bought the property on Tuesday for $5.5 million, according to a mortgage filed with the Androscoggin County Registry of Deeds.
Levesque said the building is fully occupied with tenants that include the law firm Brann & Isaacson, and he has long-term leases.
Tenants use about 436 of the parking garage’s 596 spaces. Levesque said he might look at putting those other spaces to use.
The Peck Building draws its name from Peck’s department store, an upscale retailer and local fixture for 101 years until it closed in 1981. L.L. Bean made headlines when it bought and renovated the building in the late 1980s.
Levesque bought and renovated the former McCrory’s Department Store on Lisbon Street, not far from Peck’s, in 2013, turning it into a space for his contact center, before selling the business several years ago and the building in January.
“There are some other properties and land that I’m looking at,” Levesque said Thursday. “I think Lewiston-Auburn is great for development. This is my second foray into downtown development and ownership.”
As Auburn’s mayor, he said he loves the idea of installing a flagpole at his new property “for everybody in Auburn to be able to look across the river and see a giant American flag.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
