In this 2022 file photo, pedestrians pass Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen and Topside Tavern in Freeport. Rachel Vitello / The Forecaster
One of Maine’s largest commercial real estate firms is suing the granddaughter of L.L. Bean for allegedly not paying a commission on the sale of a building to, in effect, herself.
The Boulos Co. has filed a lawsuit against Linda Bean for breach of contract, seeking $228,000 the firm claims she owes after the sale of 35 Main St., in Freeport’s downtown shopping district. The 24,000-square-foot, two-story building houses a Gap factory store and an American Eagle outlet.
The building is also steps away from the retail campus of L.L. Bean Inc. and – across the street from the family business – Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen and Topside Tavern, one of seven eateries she owns.
Bean and Boulos entered into a representation agreement in 2019 for the sale of both 35 Main St. and 39 Main St., an adjacent building that houses a Banana Republic store. According to the complaint, Bean agreed to pay Boulos a 4% commission if 35 Main St. was sold “to Defendant (or a related entity) or the Freeport Historical Society.”
The complaint alleges Bean – operating through a company she owned or controlled, “35 Main A & B, Freeport LLC” – purchased 35 Main St. on Dec. 28 for $5.7 million. But Boulos never received the $228,000 commission.
“Defendant, therefore, has been unjustly enriched by having accepted and retained the benefit of Plaintiff’s work without paying,” the firm said in the complaint, filed June 1 in Cumberland County Superior Court.
According to Freeport tax rolls, 35 Main A & B, Freeport LLC indeed purchased the property, although no price is disclosed. The property’s value was assessed in 2022 at $5.2 million.
State records show the limited liability company was established in December through a filing by Shannon Fielder of Vassalboro, who has previously submitted registrations for companies including Bean Management LLC.
A resident of Port Clyde, Linda Bean operates the restaurants, a lobster delivery service, a dozen vacation properties, and other coastal businesses under the brand name “Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine.”
Much about the dispute is unclear, such as why she might have sold 35 Main St. to a company allegedly under her control, why the commission would have also applied to a purchase by the Freeport Historical Society, and what commission Boulos could have received if the property had sold to some other buyer.
Attempts to ask Bean such questions were unsuccessful Thursday, and Boulos declined to discuss the case.
Boulos, headquartered in Portland, has brokered some of Maine’s largest commercial sales since opening in 1975. The firm has represented numerous high-profile properties, including 201 Federal St., the 18-story Portland apartment building nearing completion that is known as the state’s tallest building.
The firm previously worked with Bean, 82, in 2010, when she purchased the former Bath & Body Works building at 88 Main St. to open what is now the Maine Kitchen and Topside Tavern.
In 2017, Bean spurred a national boycott of L.L. Bean Inc. after the Federal Election Commission said she had given $55,000 more than allowed to a political action committee, which she had bankrolled to support former President Donald Trump’s first election bid.
L.L. Bean Inc. tried to distance itself from the controversy, saying the outdoor goods retailer does not endorse political candidates or make political contributions. At the time, Linda Bean was a board member of the private company, founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean.
Linda Bean, a Republican, ran unsuccessfully in 1988 and 1992 to represent Maine’s 1st Congressional District.
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