LINCOLNVILLE BEACH — In an expeditious auction, the iconic Lincolnville Beach restaurant, the Lobster Pound, was acquired by Danny and Carla Lafayette, owners of the Bangor-based Lafayette Hotels Group.

“There were no losers today,” said Stefan Keenan, of the Keenan Auction Company, the South-Portland auctioneers who had listed the foreclosed restaurant and organized the March 8 auction.

Of the 3,000 inquiries about the property that flooded in over the last several months from all over the country, several bidders ultimately showed up at 11 a.m. in the winter-closed restaurant, which looks out over West Penobscot Bay, toward Islesboro.

The Lafayettes ended up paying $700,000 for the restaurant and shorefront property, as well as another $25,000 for old debts, including unpaid real estate taxes and sewer bills.

For the community, the auction was bittersweet, marking an end to a 90-year-old enterprise and family business that ended in November with the bankruptcy filing by Richard and Patricia McLaughlin in U.S. District Court in Bangor. They had also filed a bankruptcy petition for their business, Lobster Pound Restaurant Inc. (Read: Bankruptcy ends Lobster Pound Restaurant's 90 years in business at Lincolnville Beach)

After clearing the premises, the sprawling old restaurant was shuttered, and Keenan Auction listed the property, with showings held in February.

“Starting as a small shore side lobster shack back in the late 1920s, the Lobster Pound Restaurant has evolved into a 260-seat restaurant and has become a true coastal Maine landmark,” the company described the property.

The Lobster Pound sits on one-half acre, with 305 feel of ocean frontage, and 53 feet of Route 1 frontage — prime Midcoast Maine property.

And, the property abuts the publicly owned Lincolnville Beach, is within walking distance of the Islesboro ferry, and commands presence at Lincolnville Beach.

“It’s a very old building, but it comes down to, how much do you want to pay for the land, the location and the iconic business,” he said. “At the end of the day, the success of every restaurant depends on the people running it and the chef.”

The cottage style restaurant is 9,640-square-feet in size. It also has a laundry storage area, a lobster pound with a fiberglass tank, a gas-fired lobster cooker, upstairs office and bedrooms, and a 786-square-foot kitchen.

The Town of Lincolnville had assessed the restaurant at $509,000 and the half-acre of shorefront at $490,000, for a combined property valuation of $909,000. The tax bill in 2016 was $14,194.

The Lafayettes, said Keenan, “have been very good customers over the years.” 

Lafayette Hotels owns and operates 23 hotels in Maine and New Hampshire including the Best Western Black Bear in Orono, the Senator Inn in Augusta, the Best Western White House Inn in Bangor, the Blue Nose Inn and Wonder View Inn & Suites of Bar Harbor, the Boothbay Harbor Inn and the Tugboat Inn in Boothbay Harbor, and the Fireside Inn & Suites in Auburn. The company was founded in 1982.

“They will be good stewards of the property,” said Keenan. “They have the resources to care for the real estate.”