A second midcoast motel that has been used for long-term rentals in recent years was damaged in a fire last week.
The fire was reported at the Schooner Bay Motor Inn in Rockport on Wednesday night, after a humidifier ignited in its laundry room, according to local fire officials. The exact cause of the fire was not immediately determined.
Until recently, the inn at 337 Commercial St. was owned by a group of businesses that has spent the last couple years buying up motels along Route 1 and converting them to long-term rentals. Another motel owned by them, the Admiral’s Ocean Inn in Belfast, is now closed after a more serious fire tore through it early last year.
However, the Schooner Bay Motor Inn has been vacant for at least four months and is now under new management that’s returning it to offering seasonal accommodations for travelers, according to Rockport Fire Chief Jason Peasley.
Peasley did not identify the new management. County records do not indicate any recent transactions involving the property. In 2023, the motel was bought by Rockport Ventures, a company based in southern Maine that is registered to the same address in southern Maine as the Admiral’s Ocean Inn and at least three other motels.
Representatives of those businesses did not respond to requests for comment.
According to Peasley, firefighters were able to contain last week’s blaze to the laundry room, extinguishing it a few minutes after it was discovered. Laundry equipment on-site, including all of the machines, sustained significant damage and will require replacing. Other areas including the lobby, kitchen and dining area sustained smoke damage.
No one was injured.
The new management has been doing work on the property to prepare for its seasonal opening, according to Peasley.
“The new owners have taken over; it’s going to go back to a seasonal operation,” Peasley said. “I don’t know the specific dates, but it’s going to be like spring to fall; it’ll be open to travelers and community, and then in the winter time, it’ll be closed down.”
It is not clear when the repairs will be completed or whether the fire will set back the opening.
State officials were unable to determine the exact cause of the fire at the Admiral’s Ocean Inn in January 2024. But investigators found that it started in a room on the second floor that was being rented out as an apartment to a woman and her two daughters, as well as multiple animals, according to records from the state fire marshal’s office.
Its owners are now making repairs on the building.