By David Harry
Staff Writer

Back in 1987, when Bryan Seeley needed a job, he found work during a Marden’s Surplus and Salvage tent sale in Brewer.
Now job seekers will be coming to Seeley as he supervises the conversion of the former Wal-Mart on Payne Road into the newest and largest store in the Marden’s chain.
Marden’s General Manager Paul LePage said he anticipates a spring opening for the store Seeley will manage. Marden’s closed the sale of the 119,000-square-foot building on Christmas eve.
Timing of the opening will depend on whether town officials will allow the store to begin selling surplus and salvage goods without performing façade work by April 1, as required in the Planning Board approval granted last fall, LePage said.
Marden’s officials were required to get Planning Board approval to open in the former Wal-Mart because of conditions in the approval of the Scarborough Gallery in 2005.
Anchored by a new Super Wal-Mart and Lowe’s home improvement store, the Scarborough Gallery site plan also included the Wal-Mart store that opened about 20 years ago.
Town Planner Dan Bacon said he has not had conversations with Marden’s officials about delaying façade work past April 1.
Because the date was part of the Planning Board approval of the project, the board must also approve any delays in the work, Bacon said.
Doing work to the front of the store in late spring will save money on what is estimated to be a $250,000 project, LePage said.
Whenever the store does open, Seeley said he will be on hand to supervise operations and oversee at least 130 full- and part-time workers. He, his wife and two children have moved to the area from Presque Isle, where he managed a Marden’s store.
What was intended as a four-day job loading furniture for customers at the tent sale has turned into a three-decade career working for the Waterville-based store chain, Seeley said.
In that time, Seeley said he has helped dry truckloads of wet carpets, supervised store departments and receiving areas, gone on buying tours with company officials and helped open four stores in the chain.
LePage said the process of getting the retail space was arduous because of a protracted sale process and the need to approach the Planning Board to open the store.
“In fairness to the town, deals were negotiated when the Gallery was built,” LePage said. “Had we known going in, we would not have bought the building.”
By contrast, Seeley called work needed to make the store ready for customers easier than the work needed in other locations, in part because shelves for inventory are already available and floors do not need any work.
There will be five to eight employees helping set the store up at first, Seeley said, and because they all are also longtime employees, he is comfortable that things will go well.
“If this was 20 years ago, I might have been nervous,” he said. “You never get bored opening a store.”
Once in business, Seeley said maintaining retail space in a Marden’s requires flexibility because of the company’s business plan to buy almost any kind of surplus or salvage good insurance companies might otherwise write off for a loss.
“Some things we carry, we may never carry again. The excitement is the one-time buy,” he said.
As he considers how to set up the store, Seeley is not yet certain what kind of inventory he will be receiving at first. He said he expects it will be themed for spring and knows some items are already being set aside to stock. He does know the store will be well stocked with fabrics and yarn.
 “I don’t worry about filling the store,” he said.
Because the company was unable to open the store for the fourth-quarter holiday shopping season, LePage said it is not essential to be open by the end of the first quarter this year.
Applications are already being accepted at the store. How many new hires will be made and how soon people can start working depend on progress made in converting the store. If demand Seeley said.
As Seeley and others prepare the Scarborough store, the company also is converting a former Wal-Mart in Ellsworth. Moving into established, easily converted spaces is part of the Marden’s business plan, LePage said.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219