The owner of a Newport building says a purchase and sales deal that is part of a massive Northeast Kingdom redevelopment project has two weeks to close.
The sale of the former J.J. Newberry department store building on Main Street was supposed to be finalized on June 15. It is the third time the closing has been put off. The deadline has been extended again, now to July 15, owner Tony Pomerleau said.
“If it’s not closed by July 15, the deal’s off,” Pomerleau said.
Jay Peak president Bill Stenger said his team has made a down payment of $100,000, and closing documents are being drafted and reviewed by attorneys. The total sale price is not public at this time.
Meanwhile, Newport residents await demolition of a now-vacant city block on Main Street, and downtown business owners are waiting to finalize their leases at a waterfront plaza on Lake Memphremagog as the revitalization project inches ahead.
The developments planned by Stenger and Jay Peak owner Ariel Quiros of Miami are expected to be largely funded through the federal EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. When the mixed-use Renaissance Block and the intended waterfront marina, hotel and conference center were lumped together as one project, their value totaled $175 million.
None of the downtown Newport projects are yet approved as EB-5 investments. AnCBio, a biotechnology facility, also planned for Newport, has received EB-5 approvals. Construction is underway; the estimated value of the facility will be $118 million.
While Pomerleau said money is the impediment for closing the Newberry building sale, Stenger attributed the delay to building inspections and safety issues.
About a dozen retail shops are planned.
The most recent tenant of the Newberry building, Mill River Furniture, has closed its Newport and St. Johnsbury operations, according to a company employee. Store owners Skip and Debbie Gray have kept two New Hampshire stores open — North Country Furniture in Littleton and SleepSource of West Lebanon.
Meanwhile, another pending transaction between Pomerleau and the Jay Peak developers appears to have fallen through.
In early May, Pomerleau publicly complained about the stalled sale of the Waterfront Plaza on the southeastern bank of Lake Memphremagog, to the Jay Peak developers.
Pomerleau said he would wait no longer for the money to close the deal.
At the time, he said he would initiate lease renewals immediately. As of Friday morning, June 27, only one of the nearly dozen waterfront leases had been finalized.
Chris Duncan, a business partner at Hoagie’s, said there was an exit clause in the lease the owner signed that would allow the property’s new owner to financially compensate the restaurant for disrupting the lease — should the sale come to pass.
Pomerleau noted there’s an exit clause in every lease he signs for all of the shopping centers he owns around the state.
“I have the right to move them or to buy them out,” Pomerleau said.
He maintained, however, that the plaza is no longer for sale. He said he’s finalizing plans to remodel the waterfront lot for existing businesses in the fall or spring.
Stenger declined to comment on any prospects for reviving negotiations over the waterfront property.
“I will no longer negotiate with him via the press,” Stenger said. He said he’s focused on the Newberry building for now.
Plans to raze a third downtown property — the so-called Renaissance Block that was purchased from Doug and Vivian Spates in 2013 — are being finalized, Stenger said.
The retail and residential units have been cleared, and the block will remain vacant through the summer.
“I’m expecting we’ll take it down in the fall and start construction in the spring,” Stenger said.
