South Portland, ME MaineToday Media has completed a sale/leaseback of their publishing facility at 295 Gannett Dr., according to Dan Greenstein of CBRE|The Boulos Company which handled the transaction on behalf of MaineToday Media.
A sale/leaseback is a financially modeled transaction, whereby an owner occupant of a property, sells the facility but leases the property back in its entirety for an extended period. In this instance, the leaseback insures that the tenant will be in place for the next 40 or more years. Sale/leasebacks are commonly done by companies not interested in owning real estate which is regarded as a non-core asset.
The “freed” cash will be used to reinvest in the business. The property includes a 170,000 s/f printing facility which was constructed on 21 acres in the Cummings Road Business Park in 1989 by Guy Gannett, the then owner of the newspaper. The purchaser, JB Brown & Co regards the investment as passive, with no plans or control over the operations of MaineToday Media.