March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Reny officials say closure likely permanent

FORT KENT — Two weeks after Renys Department Store closed in Fort Kent, company officials still have not reached a final decision on what the future of the Reny store will be in the northern Maine community.

The company was still looking at its options Tuesday, the senior partner in the company said.

The company is dealing with its insurance carrier about problems with the decades-old building in which it was housed on West Main Street in Fort Kent.

The Fort Kent store is Reny’s only store in Aroostook County.

The company is working with municipal officials and Fort Kent area business people, looking at the viability of renovating, reconstructing or relocating the Fort Kent store elsewhere in the community of 4,300 people.

In the end, the store may well close its doors permanently.

“We will probably not be staying in Fort Kent,” Robert Reny Sr., the founder of the chain, said Tuesday.

“It’s a wonderful town and wonderful people,” Reny said. “I hate to deny them the possibility of doing business with us, but the decision could be permanent.”

Fort Kent residents have made their concerns about the closing known to municipal and company officials. Reny said the company has been inundated with mail, telephone calls and e-mail about the closing. Some residents have left messages taped to the West Main Street storefront in Fort Kent.

The Fort Kent store was located in a building previously filled by the J.C. Penney Co. The Reny store has been at the location, which it purchased, for the last 22 years. The store carries everything from candles to clothing in less than 7,000 square feet of space. The facility had seven full-time employees.

The Reny building in Fort Kent has severe structural problems, which were discovered recently. Those problems caused the store to close.

One of the problems the company faced was space. Company officials would like to have 15,000 square feet of retail space, as their other stores have. The store has been cramped for space for a long time.

Another major problem is that the Fort Kent site is a long way from Reny’s home base in Damariscotta. The closest store to Fort Kent is in Dexter. Fort Kent is more than six hours away from the company’s main office.

Closure of the local store came as a surprise and happened very quickly. The store was open for business one day, and the storefront was covered with paper the next morning.


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