Presque Isle could get Staples store Lease agreement uncertain for planned 15,000-square-foot location

PRESQUE ISLE – An office supply superstore chain plans to set up shop in town if it can secure a lease agreement with the owner of a local shopping center, according to a company spokeswoman.

Staples Inc. could be operating in the building on North Street now occupied by Video Monitoring Services Inc. as soon as this fall if it obtains a signed lease agreement with Allen Associates of Newton Center, Mass., Julie Mittelman, Staples spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

An official with Video Monitoring Services, which monitors brand references on television and is based in New York City, declined to discuss how the lease could affect the company or cause it to change locations.

“Right now, we have nothing to announce regarding activities in Presque Isle,” Mike Giovia, VMS vice president of marketing, said Tuesday.

Responding to hearsay that the company planned to downsize with a change in location, Giovia said that the company does not anticipate any head count changes in its Presque Isle location at this time.

Staples officials chose to locate the store at the North Plaza Shopping Center on North Street because Presque Isle provides a new market for the company, Mittelman said.

“We’ve had great success in many other communities in Maine,” she said. “When we look for new stores to open up, we look for communities with high traffic … and a place with lots of small businesses and home office users. We believe Presque Isle will be a great community for us to open our doors in.”

Staples operates more than 1,600 office superstores worldwide, including 11 in Maine.

The $13.2 billion retailer plans for a 15,000-square-foot store that will employ approximately 20-25 people.

Reports of a Staples store opening in Aroostook County were made last week after the company posted an online listing for a general store manager position in the Presque Isle area. That job listing has since been taken off the company’s Web site, Mittelman said, because Staples plans to explore options “internally.”

As the company works out the lease details with Allen Associates, local officials say they don’t know much about the deal.

Allan Deeves, Presque Isle Area Chamber of Commerce executive director, said he doesn’t have information about the deal except for the “buzz around town.”

“We haven’t had any contact with the company whatsoever,” Deeves said Monday. “But we wouldn’t expect that necessarily.”

Jim Brown, the city’s director of economic and community development, said he has not been told officially that any kind of a deal has been completed.

“Nobody from Staples has confirmed or denied anything to us directly,” Brown said Monday.

Mittelman said that until the company has a signed lease, it still is technically in negotiations.

“We think the store will be open in six months, but until a lease is signed, we really don’t know when that will happen,” she said.