One week after news broke of a developer’s intention to build a sizable convenience store and gas station across the street, Elizabeth Ann General Store is up for sale.
Owners are asking $1.2 million.
Elizabeth Ann, a well-known landmark at East Avenue and Sabattus Street in Lewiston, was the Twin Cities’ first 24-hour convenience store/gas station when it opened 41 years ago.
“With . . . a large gas station/convenience store (planned) across the street, we feel we either have to rebrand and sell something else — (and there’s) not much time to get an idea and make a business plan since the new place is scheduled to open this fall — or sell our corner,” Barbara Everett said Wednesday. “All the balls are in the air at this point. Not sure how things will turn out.”
Everett and her siblings took over Elizabeth Ann from their father, its founder, 25 years ago. It was named after her mom.
She said the family had been weighing a sale for some time with no one within the family to pass the business to. She found out last week about the proposed development across the street and said she worries how it will impact sales at several area businesses, not just hers.
“I plan to stay open” as long as it’s for sale, Everett said. “We may be all right after the new one opens, even though it is big oil and they will sell gas under cost to create new habits, just like Cumberland Farms did the first year or so.
“They are only allowed one entrance on East Avenue and one on Sabattus Street; we have three entrances on East Avenue and two on Sabattus Street so it may be easier for folks to get in and out of our place.”
The property is described as 1.1 acres with a convenience store, gas pumps, restaurant and lube center.
Ready, set, grow.
The first class of Top Gun LA kicks off next week.
Leaders from seven local, young businesses — Hallah Edutainment (Hashim A’Allah), AutoLink (Benjamin Nussbaum), Springworks Farm (Trevor Kenkel and Sierra Kenkel), Little Beaver Development (Ben White), SOFIA FIMA (Dianna Pozdniakov), SpinDoc, Inc. (Susan Thomas) and Grojo, Inc. (Jared Pinkham, Aaron Hasting, Brandon Bergman) — will meet weekly with mentors and instructors on ways to build their brands, culminating in a regional pitch-off competition in May.
Top Gun is a collaboration of the Maine Center for Entrepreneurial Development, the University of Maine, the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council and MaineStream Finance. Top Gun started in Portland in 2009. This is the first time it has included this area.
This job may bite (and yet still sounds awesome)
In a job fair frame of mind? Jot these two dates down: Friday, April 7, the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Central Maine Community College and Lewiston CareerCenter will host its Annual Community Job Fair. It’s looking for businesses looking for people now.
Unity College’s annual Environmental Jobs Fair is next week, Feb. 7, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It’s a bit of a drive to Unity, but how many chances do you get to work with cheetahs? It’s New England’s largest environmental career fair, according to a news release from the college, and the roughly 100 hiring employers include the Mystic Aquarium of Mystic, Connecticut, California State Parks and the Cheetah Conservation Fund based in Namibia.
Grrr.
Skiing off, fundraising on at Saddleback
Spokeswoman Crystal Canney posted a message from Peter Stein on Saddleback Mountain Foundation’s Facebook page on Tuesday.
Stein is leading the charge to buy Saddleback and turn it into a community-owned resort. He wrote that the search is on for a foundation executive director and resort general manager, that the foundation has grown to six board members and that a new website is coming soon.
There were no details about how much of the needed $4 million down payment has been raised. Canney said Wednesday nothing more was being released “at this time.”
Stein’s note read in part:
“‘What about that ambitious plan announced in the fall and reopening the ski area, what is the business plan, are you raising the money?’
“These are all excellent, valid questions. I want people to know I haven’t wavered a bit in the vision I championed in the fall, and I want people to also know I am not out there alone. Every day since October, a core group of talented, committed people have kept their shoulders to the (bull) wheel.
“I so deeply regret that we couldn’t get those lifts spinning for this season. We meant it and we were motivated to succeed in that goal. But even though those lifts sit idle as we come into February, I and early champions, The Trust for Public Land, the New England Forestry Foundation and others continue to work very closely together confronting and working to overcome complex business details one question at a time.”
The foundation, meanwhile, is pursing nonprofit status.
Quick hits about business comings, goings and happenings. Have a Buzzable tip? Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at 689-2844 or kskelton@sunjournal.com.
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