September was a crazy real estate month. Is it more supply, lowering interest rates, pre hibernation activity? I’m not sure. I just know that one of the sales was one of my own favorite properties and I have such mixed feelings about selling it.
I purchased Pomegranate Inn in 2007, RIGHT before the “crash”. I paid over TEN times gross revenue, which is a huge mistake in our industry, but I knew I could increase the revenue quickly and we did. Within one year my purchase price was only five times the revenue so I had clearly made a good investment.
We increased the revenue, found a brilliant innkeeper and the beginning was wonderful. Part of the creative way we put together the Pomegranate sale was with a direct trade of properties. The seller at the time planned to reinvest the proceeds from selling the inn into rental properties in Portland. I happened to own several so I bought Pomegranate Inn and she bought four properties from me, three condos in the West End that I had purchased and renovated and one at Winslow Lofts that was part of the brand new conversion at 547 Congress Street. It was the ideal deal.
Once I started spending less time in Portland, overseeing management became challenging and I eventually turned both Pomegranate and Danforth - at the time - over to a management company. Between issues there then the disaster that came with Covid, the property never recovered to the point of the first years I owned and ran it. Very sad for such an iconic property.
It never went on the market, I was approached by another innkeeper who I thought would do a great job and made the verbal deal to sell. My Portland team had already made the decision when we closed the inn in early 2024 that we would convert it to two residential properties, the main house and the carriage house and sell them separately. We didn’t convey the art or the furniture for this reason so our Pomegranate, filled with art, antiques and a shabby chic vibe is part of history now and I’m sort of glad. The next Pomegranate iteration will be something totally new and different. I like that.
As I always try to do, I practice what I preach - sell before things get totally overwhelming. I couldn’t give Pomegranate the attention and care she deserved and I trust the next owners will.