City may catch Bull Moose

SOUTH PORTLAND — There’s nothing official yet, but it appears a Bull Moose store may be opening shop in South Portland’s Mill Creek, in the 7,000-square-foot Blockbuster Video store at 217 Waterman Ave.

According to records at the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds, property owner Linda Valentino of Saco sold the building and its 0.83-acre lot on March 21 to Green Crossing Blue LLC.

Justine Lamontagne, a retail specialist with NAI The Dunham Group who brokered the deal, said the building, which was on the market for “less than eight weeks,” sold for $1.12 million. The city has the property assessed at $1.02 million.

The quitclaim deed for the transaction gives Green Crossing Blue’s address as 17 Arbor St. in Portland. That’s the historic Engine Company Number Nine firehouse built in 1903 and now home to Bull Moose’s corporate headquarters as well as its subsidiary, Crickery Wood, a reseller of point-of-sale equipment.

According to a search at the Maine Secretary of State website, Green Crossing Blue was just born on March 15, with Verrill Dana partner Charles Bacall of Portland as its registered agent.

Brett Wickard, owner and founder of Bull Moose, did not deny his company’s interest in the building Tuesday, saying only in an email, “We don’t have anything to announce yet.”

Bull Moose, which sells music, movies, video games and books, has nine locations in Maine, including one in Scarborough, and a store in Portsmouth, N.H.

South Portland’s code enforcement officer, Patricia Doucette, said Tuesday that she has yet to issue an occupancy permit for any new tenant in the Blockbuster building.

“We’ve been wondering ourselves who might be going in there,” she said.

According to Joann Goodwin, a clerk at Blockbuster’s  South Portland site, the store will close April 15.

Goodwin declined to confirm the successor to her store location, saying only, “You’ll have to check with Bull Moose.”

In an interview last summer, shortly after Borders called it quits July 21, Wickard expressed interest in acquiring its South Portland store, adjacent to the Maine Mall as a complement to his Scarborough location.

However, Wickard never got a chance to place a bid as the unexpired lease on the site, along with one in Bangor, was awarded to Birmingham-based Books-A-Million Inc in a 14-store, $934,209 deal signed off on by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Martin Glenn on Aug. 29