New York firm purchases empty HQ building Facility among top 25 valuations in city

BANGOR – A New York realty firm has purchased the 100,000-square-foot Home Quarters Warehouse Inc. on Springer Drive. Kimco Realty Corp. of Hyde Park, N.Y., closed the deal Friday afternoon, according to Andrew Hamilton, a Bangor attorney representing the firm.

The purchase price was not disclosed but the personal property is valued at $1.1 million and is one of the top 25 valuations among commercial accounts in the city. Kimco is described as a “leading retail Real Estate Investment Trust specializing in the acquisitions, development, and management of neighborhood centers” on its Web site, www.kimcorealty.com.

Home Quarters, also known as HQ, was owned by Hechinger Co., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed 89 stores in June 1999. The Bangor store closed at the end of that year. It opened in May 1993 to an overflow crowd that required Bangor police to help direct traffic.

Nationwide, Hechinger struggled against rival companies with greater financial resources such as Home Depot and Lowe’s. In December 1997, Home Depot opened a 130,000-square-foot warehouse store next door to Home Quarters in Bangor.

According to information on Kimco’s Web site, the company owns no other property in Maine. The closest property owned by the firm is the Rockingham Mall in Salem, N.H.

The company has approximately $1 billion in assets, the majority of it “institutional grade shopping centers located in key growth markets and containing long-term leases” that are located “In an area that has a population of 75,000 within a five-mile radius.”

According to information on its Web site, Kimco invested more than $250 million to acquire new properties between 1998 and 2000, the vast majority of it shopping centers and malls.

Hamilton referred questions about the sale to David Samber, a leasing associate, who worked out of an office in Lake Success, N.Y. Samber could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Kimco was formed in 1960 on a handshake between two friends and partners – Milton Cooper, the current chairman and CEO, and Martin Kimmell, chairman emeritus. Together, they opened their first shopping center in Southern Florida.

Today, Kimco is the nation’s largest publicly traded owner and operator of neighborhood and community shopping centers, with almost 500 properties in 41 states. It reported third-quarter earnings of $59.3 million, a reported 15 percent increase over the same period last year.