Marden’s store in Madawaska to open in fall

MADAWASKA – The president of Marden’s Surplus and Salvage Co. made it official Wednesday that the company’s 13th store will be in Madawaska, opening sometime around October.

The Madawaska outlet will be the third in Aroostook County, joining stores now located in Presque Isle and Houlton. The store at Presque Isle opened in 2000 and the Houlton store opened in 2003.

Reports of the store’s coming have been on the street for several months. The store will open in the former Ames Department Store location. The building is vacant and needs work before the doors open.

“We have a verbal agreement and we are working just as fast as we can,” Harold Marden, president of the 42-year-old Waterville-based company, said Wednesday. “The building needs a lot of work, but we are working as hard as we can to get the work done.

“We are good old boys; we will open as quickly as we can,” he said.

The number of employees will also depend on how sales go at the facility, he said.

“We will need between 40 and 60 people to operate the store, depending on the mix of full-time and part-time people,” he said. “We like to hire as many full-time people as we can.

“It’s relative on how sales go,” he said.

The building is about 57,000 square feet. Marden said the building needs a new roof, new flooring and possibly some work on the front to make it more energy-efficient.

Since Ames closed, the building has housed two short-lived paper collection and marketing companies. The building has been empty for some time.

Paul Daigle of Frenchville, president of FND Inc., owner of the shopping center, had planned to place a manufacturing facility for ambulances in the area several months ago. He is now looking at building in another location.

In the meantime, he is also renovating the remaining buildings in the former shopping center. He is adding 8,000 square feet, making it 37,000 square feet, to a mini-mall area that used to house four other stores, including the Hannaford Shop ‘n Save.

“We have a deal with Marden’s,” he said Wednesday. “We are getting local contractors into there, and they will bring some of their own. I am also working to bring the other buildings up to par, making them larger. I want to get several more businesses into the center.”

He wants more stores and business outlets to revitalize the former shopping area.

“Getting Marden’s in there by October means we have a lot of work to do,” he said.

The $1.5 million worth of work at the shopping center will be partially covered by a $400,000 Business Assistance Grant that will fund the roofing project at the center.

Suzie Paradis, Madawaska’s economic development coordinator, said the shopping center has been closed for 12 years.

“I think this will be a great economic boost for the area,” she said Wednesday. “This will draw more people into Madawaska, and they will tend to shop at other outlets while here.”

Marden’s purchases and re-sells overstocks from other companies, closeouts, merchandise from insurance losses and merchandise it receives from salvage deals. The company was started by Mickey Marden, a postal worker, in 1964.

The company has stores in Presque Isle, Houlton, Calais, Ellsworth, Brewer, Lincoln, Waterville, Lewiston, Gray, Sanford, Biddeford and Portland. It also has three warehouses in Maine.