HAMPDEN – Years of negotiations between town officials and L.L. Bean representatives are finally paying off – and paying big for Hampden.

The town officially took ownership Thursday of the former L.L. Bean property on Route 202, snapping up the 234 acres for $360,000, less than half the sum they considered paying one year ago. The acquisition has been on the minds of residents for years, with voters endorsing the purchase in 1999 and 2002.

Councilors tabled the purchase last year, saying they couldn’t justify the original $800,000 price tag. With the new deal, however, and concern that the property could be bought by developers or put in a land trust, town officials started work on a purchase and sale agreement in September.

The closing on the land, assessed at $620,200, became final on Thursday.

“We’re not in the land development business. We sold it for what we wanted for it,” Randy Reynolds, L.L. Bean director of facilities planning and management, said Thursday.

The sporting-goods company purchased the property, formerly the southern portion of the Ammo Industrial Park, in 1989 with plans to build a $50 million distribution center. It was to be operational by 1992 with 500 full-time employees.

Five years later, the plans were scrapped, and L.L. Bean constructed its Freeport facility. Now it is up to the town’s economic development committee to discuss how the land will be used, according to Town Manager Susan Lessard.

“The ability to get water and sewer to it exists because of our business park,” she said Thursday.

The Hampden Business and Commerce Park is located near the former L.L. Bean property.

A review in October by WBRC Architects of Bangor found no environmental hazards at the site, confirming a 1989 report performed for L.L. Bean, Lessard said. Much of the land is open or wooded, as none of it was developed while under L.L. Bean ownership.

Bean also never put the property on the open market, Reynolds said.

“We just never got around to it. We’re busy building stores and focusing on expansion,” he said, adding that the company is pleased that negotiations with the town have concluded. “We’re very glad they picked this up.”