“Stay tuned. I will try not to disappoint."

Wiscasset’s Chris Soucier wanted to share that message with readers in a Sept. 24 interview that was mostly about his recent purchase: The 43-45 Water St. building that long housed the iconic Sarah’s Cafe and last housed Jodie’s Cafe & Bakery.

Think "very multi-use," including housing, said the longtime environmental consultant, Lewiston born and raised, and one-time urchin diver from Casco Bay to Owl’s Head. Soucier bought the old Sarah's Cafe property in early September.

He and wife Stephanie had long owned and managed Maine properties, including rental ones; they got out of it and bought Wiscasset’s customs house-turned-home about two years ago. That was a quick decision. They knew the 14 Water St./7 Middle St. property overlooking the Sheepscot River would go quickly. So they bought it, and renovations began. The first thought was for an airbnb. Then, they got to know the people of this area. Now, the customs house, is home full-time to the couple and daughter Fina, 15, a Lincoln Academy sophomore. 

“I can’t explain it," Soucier said of the family's decision. "We were so taken with the place and the people, we were so embraced, it was unbelievable.” By place, he said he meant Wiscasset but also Boothbay or anywhere they went. For the family, having the customs house property as their home has become all about community, Soucier said. 

From the dug-up yard during renovation came two granite pieces the family donated this summer to the town as benches, in front of the property. Public tours are eyed for the site that is on both the National Register of Historic Places and Wiscasset's Museum in the Streets (MITS). Also, a “pirate committee” has been meeting weekly planning something there to tie into Wiscasset’s Halloween traditions, he said.

They'll make the customs house available free for their friends' and family's gatherings. "And I would make the space affordable for a local business's holiday party. It may also be rented to an executive crew out of (New York City) for a boutique dinner event and boat cruise event or a location shoot! Either way I’m community driven and that starts with being a good neighbor. That being said, the type of events to be held there will be determined using that as a primary consideration."

And the family plans to have part of the customs house property become a “semi-public” park that would be open for anyone when the pseudo-gate is, he said. “I just like people, man. I want people to come and sit.” 

Contributing to, but not changing, the community is a goal there, as it is with his recent buy of the old Sarah’s Cafe building up the street. 

“That’s a big space. We can get a lot of ideas in there, (so) stay tuned … Renovations are starting very soon,” he added. "I’m just trying to get something in there that the community will appreciate.”

He and his team are looking to renovate the upstairs apartments “into likely four really good livable spaces … So, multiple ideas going into a very big space,” he said of the property’s future. “Residential being part of it.”

Anyone he has worked with in the town government has been “unbelievably supportive,” Soucier said. “And neighbors for that matter … absolutely incredible. I mean, when bankers are contacting me in the weekend, I’m not used to that.” He went through First National on the financing.

Wiscasset Economic Development Director Aaron Chrostowsky has brought him up to speed on the Community Development Block Grant the town helped line up with the state, to improve the facade of what was then Jodie's. Depending on timing, Soucier hopes to use the grant and he has agreed to its required, property owner's match. 

He attributes the whole welcoming response to people’s having needed community, “I think more than they realized. In the last five, seven years, it’s been pretty extreme isolation, between COVID, politics, division, all that. And I think we feel a little more adrift as a society. I know recently I’ve had meals with friends, real, simple (gatherings), and with people I don’t know. Just having good discussions … is really soothing.

“And I think in a little village like this it’s easier to make those things happen.”

Late spring, he expects one of the to-be-announced uses at 43-45 Water St. to open.

Among those looking forward to the property's next chapter is the Wiscasset woman who was the broker for the building's seller Jodie Roquemore. Sherri Dunbar of Tim Dunham Realty is a longtime Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce member and serves on the town's economic development advisory committee.

Said Dunbar Sept. 24, "It was sad to see Sarah's close, and it was sad to see Jodie's close. Having been here so long, I have seen a lot of change," Dunbar said. "And it's usually sad to see businesses leave, but it's also exciting to see new ones come in. So I'm excited to see what they're going to do."

Jodie's closed in May. According to Wiscasset Newspaper files, Roquemore bought the property in June 2023 from Sarah Heald. It had been Sarah's Cafe since 1997, when the eatery moved there from Main Street.