PORTLAND (WGME) — Portland’s Custom House Wharf is still months away from being rebuilt after this winter’s devastating fire.
But for at least one business, that can’t come soon enough.
Nanuq Kayaks, which lost everything, says this is normally when business starts to pick up, but not this year.
Nanuq Kayaks once stood on Custom House Wharf in downtown Portland. Now, it’s just an empty lot filled with charred wood and debris after a devastating fire. The owner says it’s been one hurdle after another: first losing everything he owned, and now struggling to find a new home for the passion he refuses to give up.
“Everything in that shop had a story,” Nanuq Kayaks Owner Harley Lewis said. “That all burnt. That’s all gone.
Lewis says that feeling never hit him as he watched the December fire tear his business to the ground as hard as it is right now.
“It’s disruptive to your entire life. I spent seven years building it and went by in an hour,” Lewis said.
The wharf is still few months away from being ready.
“This summer, we’re going to get it done,” Custom House Wharf Co-owner John Jabar said.
Jabar says that they are working as fast as they can, still clearing debris where kayaks should be.
“We have a standard array of new boats coming in that we had ordered before the fire,” Lewis said.
With nowhere to put the boats, he has tried to look for a pop-up retail space for months now but so far, no success.
“All the brokers I’ve spoken to, they all say they’ll work on it,” Lewis said.
Lewis says he’s not ready to call it quits just yet, but time’s running out.
“To rebuild from scratch in the winter, next winter, that’d be tough. That’d be tough,” Lewis said.
As for the fire, State Fire Marshals say they are still investigating, but we may never know a cause due to the extent of the damage.
