Maine
Iconic Maine Diner property going to auction — unless owner can stop it
WELLS, Maine — The site of the Maine Diner is slated for the auction block, just four months after the iconic eatery went on the real estate market for $3.3 million.
Remember the Maine Gift Shop, located next door, is also part of the property at 2265 Post Road, for which Keenan Auction Company of Portland will hold a foreclosure auction at 11 a.m. on June 4.
Jim MacNeill and his wife, Karen, have owned the diner and gift shop for the past 8 years. MacNeill began working at the diner 30 years ago, starting as a manager and eventually becoming general manager.
During an interview on May 6, MacNeill expressed confidence that next month’s auction will not be necessary, as he is taking steps to address financial challenges associated with the property.
In the meantime, MacNeill said Maine Diner remains open Thursdays through Saturdays, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. He said he is working to increase his staff so that the diner can be open for more hours.
“The intent is to be open Fridays through Tuesdays for dinner,” he said.
MacNeill noted that while the property and buildings at 2265 Post Road are headed to auction, he still owns the diner’s name. If a buyer wants to keep operating a diner on the site, he said, they will need to purchase the “Maine Diner” name from him.
The diner’s financial challenges began during the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to MacNeill.
MacNeill said the diner did not experience financial difficulties during 2020 and 2021, the first two years of the global health crisis, thanks to Paycheck Protection Program funding from the federal government.
When the nationwide workforce shortage hit in 2022, MacNeill said he no longer had enough employees to open for dinner. Revenues fell as a result, and covering expenses became increasingly difficult.
To attract a larger staff, MacNeill purchased Coast Village Inn and Cottages on Route 1 to provide housing for employees. However, MacNeill said revenue challenges persisted at the diner and hotel last summer, as local tourism dipped in response to increased tariffs and strained relations between the United States and Canada.
“The diner couldn’t support both businesses,” MacNeill said. “The diner remains entirely viable, but the inn is not.”
“The hotel provided a solution, but created a new problem,” he added. “I couldn’t sell a room last summer. No one was here.”
Keenan Auction Company will also try to sell Coast Village Inn and Cottages during a foreclosure auction at 876 Post Road on May 15 at 4 p.m.
The hotel is a 30‑unit lodging complex on 3.4 acres near shops, restaurants, and beaches, according to Keenan Auction Company. In addition to the main inn, guest rooms are spread across two corridor‑style buildings — one two‑story and one single‑story — along with 10 on‑site cottages. Amenities include a swimming pool, on‑site parking, a recreation area, and sun decks.
The site of the inn is where Edmund Littlefield, known as the “Father of Wells,” built his home, sawmill, and gristmill in the early 1640s, according to the Wells Historical Society.
“His establishment of these mills enticed and enabled future settlers to make their homes here,” according to the records at the town Historical Society.
KENNEBUNK (WGME) — A national wildlife refuge in Maine has a new center for its visitors.
At a ribbon cutting in Kennebunk Wednesday, Maine leaders celebrated the grand opening of the Rachel Carson Center for People and Nature.
The new center offers exhibits and programs for the nearly 300,000 visitors that stop by the refuge each year.
The center’s grand opening coincides with the late author Rachel Carson’s birthday.
Carson’s research helped to spur conservation efforts and environmental policy changes in the 1960s, something Congresswoman Chellie Pingree says she’s now fighting for decades later.
“We’ve actually come 180 degrees, we think science is wrong and we shouldn’t believe in it and climate change doesn’t exist,” Pingree said. “We’re battling an anti-science battle, and we have to continue to take it on, but one of the best ways to do that is to bring people right here in touch with nature.”
The refuge in total spans more than 6,000 acres across several cities and towns in southern Maine.
The typical home in Maine’s largest city costs nearly $300,000 more than it would have a decade ago, a new study revealed.
Median home prices in Portland surged from $263,000 to $558,000 over the past 10 years, according to an analysis of nationwide real estate data from Construction Coverage. That’s a 112% spike in the last decade, earning the city the 85th spot among all small U.S. cities ranked by housing price growth.
Meanwhile, the median Maine home cost about $193,000 in 2016 and $407,000 in 2026. That 111% growth makes Maine the state with the third highest real estate price jump over the last decade.
The report reveals that Maine’s housing has not only become unaffordable to most people in the state, but that Mainers are feeling the pressure of rising home prices more than almost every other state while wages have struggled to keep up. Nationwide, home values jumped more than 81% in the last decade.
The report includes data from Zillow, the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
While median housing prices across the state rose 110% over the last 10 years, median household income rose by 53%. It shows that many Mainers aren’t able to afford the rising costs.
The Maine Housing Outlook Report, released in January by MaineHousing, noted housing prices outpacing wages as an “ongoing concern.”
“In 2015, the median income in Maine exceeded by 21% what was needed to afford the median home price in the state. In other words, an average earner could afford an average home,” the report stated. “This is no longer the case.”
Only Idaho and New Hampshire have seen housing prices grow more than Maine, according to the analysis.
Idaho saw the highest jump, as median property values rose 137% to surpass $473,000 this year when the same home there would’ve cost just under $200,000 in 2016.
In New Hampshire, median home prices rose more than $270,000 over the last 10 years to $507,000 this year — a 114% spike.
Meanwhile, median household income in Idaho and New Hampshire climbed by 64% and 50%, respectively, during the same period.
PORTLAND (WGME) — A legal battle between the University of New England and the City of Biddeford is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.
UNE is suing the city after leaders approved a 180-day moratorium on university development earlier this year.
“Litigation wasn’t our first choice,” UNE VP for Legal Affairs Ron Schneider said.
UNE is suing the city for disrupting approved projects through a development moratorium the city established in January.
Schneider says while they believe there is no straightforward reason for the moratoria, they think it was sparked by the university’s push to replace an existing pier with a new one along the Saco River.
“The full year-round permanent pier will allow students to engage in research and work on the water year-round,” Schneider said.
A legal battle between the University of New England and the City of Biddeford is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. (WGME)
The project first initiated in 2009 is still being debated by city leaders. According to the city’s website, the project violates a long-standing permit that requires new developments to “retain and maintain a 250-foot-wide vegetative buffer along the entire shoreline,” the pier’s proposed access road would violate that permit.
However, the project has already been approved by the city planning board.
“Now politics seems to have taken over,” Schneider said.
The city held a meeting just for public comment on the pier in October, with many opposed to the location of it, and at least one other saying it could affect boat moorings.
“There are at least seven that have to move so UNE can even use this pier,” Sean Tibbets, who has a mooring near the UNE pier, said.
A legal battle between the University of New England and the City of Biddeford is now headed to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. (WGME)
Meanwhile, the university disagrees.
“In many respects, it’s a false narrative,” Schneider said. “A narrative that says, ‘This pier is going to go out into the federal channel, into the middle of the river,’ and it’s not.”
The City of Biddeford says it does not comment on ongoing litigation. When CBS13 asked UNE if they think this has affected their relationship with the city, they said with city leaders, but not the city itself.
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