Opera House for sale or lease? If so, what's the price?

by John Governale
     
     NORWAY - Realtor signs have appeared in the windows of the Opera House, but it is unclear if HBS Realty, whose name appears on the signs, is trying to sell the building or lease retail space.
     A call to HBS Realty on Friday afternoon was answered by a man who, when asked the selling price of the building, said, "That hasn't been confirmed yet. Thank you very much," then hung up.
     The abruptness of the answer may be because the caller identified himself as a newspaper reporter. Follow-up calls were not answered.
     A call earlier last week by Bruce Cook, who is a Norway selectman and the treasurer of Norway Downtown, had better results.
     Cook reported to the Norway Downtown board on May 1st that, according to what he was told by a woman on the phone, the price was "three-quarters of a million" dollars.
     If the answer Cook was given - $750,000 - is correct, it is more than three times the $225,000 that owner Barry Mazzaglia paid for the Norway landmark in 2003.
     Another Norway Downtown board member, Tony Morra, said that HBS Realty is Mazzaglia's company.
     A website, hbsrealty.com, confirmed this. It shows that the Londonderry, NH, company is owned by Mazzaglia, who is its broker. In addition, there are 11 sales associates and a managing broker.
     Among the commercial properties listed on the HBS Realty site is one located in Norway, Maine. The property is described as being 18,000 square feet and has a price of $600,000.
     Also listed is office/retail space for lease in Norway, in an 18,000-square-foot building, that would go for $1,000 to $1,200 a month. The market area for the space is described as "Greater Portland."
     Though no pictures are shown with the listings, a photo of the Opera House does appear elsewhere on the website.
     There are confirmed reports - not by Mazzaglia, but by local individuals who asked not to be identified - that a group of Oxford Hills citizens contacted Mazzaglia earlier this year, inquiring if the Opera House was for sale and what the price would be.
     They say Mazzaglia told them it would sell for $600,000, but that he didn't plan to sell it. He wanted to refurbish the building and turn it into condominiums.
     Whether the asking price is $600,000 or $750,000 - or if the amount "hasn't been confirmed yet" - it appears the Opera House is in worse condition today than it was five years ago.
     In September of 2007, the stability of the building was threatened when one of the Opera House's 60-foot iron and wood roof trusses failed. The roof partially collapsed, breaking a sprinkler pipe and flooding the place. The weight of the water from the damaged pipe, plus rain water that had accumulated on the roof, caused the back wall of the three-story structure to bow and some bricks on that side to fall out.
     Retail tenants on the first floor were forced to leave, and Mazzaglia, with a work crew, drained the water and made efforts to stabilize the building by installing wooden pillars to reinforce the failed truss.
     Though the Opera House is privately owned, town officials hired a structural engineer to determine if the building was in danger of immediate collapse and if residents of the neighboring properties had to be evacuated.
     Engineer Alfred Hodson visited the building on October 9, 10, and 11 to inspect the damage, and then six more times to observe conditions and the stabilization work being done by Mazzaglia. He also viewed the back of the building during a heavy, wind-driven rainstorm on November 6.
     In his report, Hodson said that while stabilization efforts had been effective, he would not recommend allowing retail clients back in the building until further work was done.
     Hodson said in his report that the building's owner "must realize that to allow first-floor reoccupancy will involve more labor and materials than mere stabilization in order to ensure the safety of occupants and the public."
     The report also said that during the winter of 2007, no more than 12 inches of snow or six inches of ice be allowed to accumulate on the Opera House roof.
     Town officials monitored the snow depth during the winter, and Mazzaglia came to Norway several times to shovel the roof.
     The building has had neither heat nor electricity since the sprinkler failure in September.
     Owners of two businesses that were forced to move from the ground floor of the Opera House are seeking money for damages from Bitim Enterprises Inc., a company of Mazzaglia's through which he leased space in the building.
     Albina Massimino, of Beauty and Beyond, and Elsie Thurlow, of the Colonial Coffee Shoppe, hired attorney Theodore Kurtz to file suit in Oxford County Superior Court against Bitim Enterprises Inc, charging negligence, breach of contract, and fraud. They claim that Bitim Enterprises knew about dangerous conditions in the Opera House and did not inform its tenants.
     Massimino claims she suffered $75,000 in losses over the incident, and Thurlow, $25,000.
     While the two each had insurance on their businesses, it appears, according to a published report, that Bitim Enterprises Inc. had none for the Opera House.