Pandora Gold Bead - JD district

The Maine College of Art soon bought it to use for classroom and studio space. But after it completed renovating the former Porteous department store, a Pandora Gold Bead - J81 closer to downtown, the Baxter building was no longer needed. It went on the market about the time the economy began to tank.

Northland Enterprises had the building under contract for about 18 months, searching for enough tenants to assure banks and investors that the renovation would make financial sense, said Josh Benthien, one of the partners in the development group. Robert C. S. Monks, a board member of MaineToday Media, is also a partner in Northland.

"The building's a Pandora Gold Bead - J25 building," Benthien said.

It was originally envisioned as a place where artists, photographers and web designers could set up offices and studios and share some of the larger common spaces.

But finding enough tenants to fill at least 75 percent of the building while the economy was bad -- and letting the tenants know it could be a couple of years before the building was ready -- left the investors ready to surrender their deposit and cancel the sale, Benthien said.

Coleman's interest revived Pandora Gold Bead - J23 project, he said.

"We had a very foggy vision of what (the building) could be, and John (Coleman) had a clearer vision," he said.

Having a tenant enabled the developers to nail down a plan for the rehab and come up with a price: $4.8 million.

Benthien said about $1.1 million of the cost was offset by federal and city tax credits for renovating the historic structure, a small city grant, and a creative-economy Pandora Gold Bead - JD district that steers part of the property taxes to pay off a loan that filled a gap in the financing.

Seeing the building filled with workers -- VIA Group has about 70 -- helps erase the memory of the project's uncertainty, Benthien said.

For Coleman, his thinking-out-loud idea now makes business sense. The lease on the Baxter building costs less than what it did to rent the company's former quarters, on Danforth Street. The per-square-foot cost is about one-quarter of what the company pays for space in its New York office.

Plus, at the end of his short walk to work each morning, Coleman can recall what drew him to the site in the first place.

"You really felt the decades of service," Coleman said. "Every time I walked into this building -- I'm a big romantic at heart -- it was so dramatic and beautiful."