BIDDEFORD — FedEx will open a distribution facility at the former Hostess bakery at 1 Bakers Way, according to a local commercial real estate broker.
The news was announced Thursday at the Maine Real Estate and Development Association’s annual forecast conference in Portland.
The bakery closed in 2012 following a strike in Biddeford and at Hostess bakeries nationwide. About 400 people lost their jobs as a result of the Biddeford closing.
In July 2013, Georgia-based Flowers Foods purchased the 265,000-square-foot facility, which sits on 40 acres off the Maine Turnpike spur, for $15.3 million, according to online city records.
In October 2014, the property was sold again for $6.8 million to Biddeford Holdings LLC, a partnership between New Mill Capital and Gordon Bros., and the equity firm promptly put it on the market.
The property was most recently assessed at $9.2 million.
FedEx will lease the property from Biddeford Holdings, said Justin Lamontagne, a broker at the Portland-based commercial real estate firm NAI The Dunham Group, on Thursday. CBRE/The Boulos Company brokered the deal, he said.
Lamontagne presented the news at the MEREDA conference.
Lamontagne said Biddeford Holdings typically works with food processing companies, but cut a deal with FedEx after the shipping company agreed to lease the entire facility.
It is unclear when the new Biddeford location will open, but it will be used as a storage and distribution facility similar to one FedEx already operates in Saco, he said.
Lamontagne said he does not know what FedEx will be paying in rent. A brochure on The Boulos Company’s website advertises the property for lease at $5 per square foot.
Lamontagne said the news is an indication of the area’s improving commercial real estate market.
“The market in Biddeford and Saco has improved greatly over the last few years in the industrial sector,” he said after the conference Thursday. “This is a major boon to Biddeford, and further tightens the inventory down there.”
Representatives from FedEx, Biddeford Holdings, The Boulos Company and the City of Biddeford did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This story will be updated.
— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.
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