ELLSWORTH, Maine — A local shopping center that has been on the market for two years has a new owner.
According to documents on file at the Hancock County Registry of Deeds, the Ellsworth Shopping Center on High Street changed hands Sept. 29. The 19-acre property, where Shaw’s Supermarkets, Reny’s and other businesses have retail stores, includes several acres of undeveloped land behind the mall.
The Van Loon family, which owned the Ellsworth Shopping Center, also sold the abutting former Hanf block, which they acquired about 10 years ago, and the marine supply store behind the mall, according to registry of deeds documents.
The new owner of the contiguous properties is listed in registry records as an entity called DK Ellsworth Shopping Center LLC. The property had been listed for sale for nearly $8.2 million, but information about its purchase price was unavailable Thursday.
New Jersey resident Matthew Van Loon, executor of his father’s estate, confirmed the sale in a brief email to the Bangor Daily News earlier this week. Subsequent attempts to contact Van Loon have been unsuccessful.
The property had been developed in the 1960s by Van Loon’s father and grandfather, James C. Van Loon Jr. and James C. Van Loon Sr.
James C. Van Loon Jr. died in 2009.
According to state records, Portland attorney John D. Devine is the registered agent for the property’s new owner, which registered with the state as a corporation in August of this year. Devine did not return a voicemail message left at his office at midday Thursday.
For decades, until December 2011, the Van Loon family owned nearly all commercial and residential properties on the block bordered by High, Water, Foster and Washington streets. At that time, the Van Loon Estate sold six properties along Water Street to Penquis CAP, which since has constructed a 29-unit housing facility on those lots.
