The Maine State Pier, once the epicenter in a battle for luxury hotels, is now the focus of negotiations to bring a marine-industries incubator to Portland’s waterfront.

Thor Sigfusson, an entrepreneur from Iceland, and Patrick Arnold, the owner of Soli DG Inc., a management and consulting firm in South Portland, are talking with city officials about leasing the top floor of the former municipal transit shed on the pier.

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This former municipal transit shed on the Maine State Pier is the focus of negotiations for a space in which to establish a business incubator on the Portland waterfront. 2014 Press Herald File Photo/Shawn Patrick Ouellette

The two companies plan to model the new business after the Iceland Ocean Cluster, a privately owned business in Reykjavik, the island nation’s capital. That company works in collaboration with 40 other companies, many of them start-ups, in a converted warehouse on Reykjavik’s waterfront to explore ways to bring marine-related products to market.

Beyond setting up a similar complex in Maine for ocean-related businesses to share space and ideas, the effort could make Portland the beachhead for other North Atlantic nations that are seeking capital, partners and markets in the United States.

“It’s a dynamic embassy for Nordic countries,” Sigfusson said of the proposed incubator space.

He said many of the Reykjavik companies are seeking partners to help bring their products, such as technology that uses fish skin to treat chronic wounds, into the U.S. market. Some of those companies could set up offices in the planned incubator, which would be called the New England Ocean Cluster. They could use the facility as conference and meeting space even if they don’t become tenants, Sigfusson said.

He and Arnold have been looking for a warehouse-like building with 30,000 square feet of space, plus room for expansion, to locate their incubator. The shed on the Maine State Pier is the only city-owned facility that has that capacity, according to Greg Mitchell, Portland’s economic development director. Mitchell said the city is negotiating with ocean cluster proponents over lease terms, but he would not confirm the building’s location, citing confidentiality.

Arnold acknowledged Thursday that investors are eyeing the second floor of the Maine State Pier, in part because there is room on top of the shed to build more office space, he said.

While the city-owned pier is the company’s top choice for the incubator, Arnold said, investors are also looking at other waterfront properties in the city, including Thompson’s Point and the Portland Company Complex.

Backers of the New England Ocean Cluster plan to start the enterprise with 20 marine-related businesses that would lease private offices and shared space.

The ocean cluster concept brings together people from very different kinds of companies and industries so they can collaborate on money-generating projects. The company charges fees for joining the group, and Sigfusson sets businesses up with other businesses to develop projects. He also makes investments in promising projects in exchange for shares in the companies.

The Iceland Ocean Cluster, established in 2011, has seen five spinoff companies created from the exchange of ideas among its incubator tenants.

The Iceland Ocean Cluster House has both private offices and large common rooms. In one example of how interaction and the sharing of ideas among the companies is encouraged, coffee makers are only located in shared spaces and aren’t allowed in tenants’ private offices.

Sigfusson likes the industrial ambiance and the large open rooms available in the shed on the Maine State Pier.

“I would love that building,” he said.

Arnold said large windows would be installed in the second floor of the shed, which would not interfere with the Whaling Wall, a 950-foot mural on the side of the shed.

The tenants on the first floor of the Maine State Pier shed are Shucks Maine Lobster, a processing company; and Ready Seafood, a lobster wholesaler.

Portland Mayor Michael Brennan confirmed that the city is in preliminary talks with the investors about the Maine State Pier, emphasizing that any proposal for the pier would require City Council approval.

A GOOD FIT FOR PORTLAND

The incubator complex is the most recent proposal for the Maine State Pier. The city’s most easterly pier also is home to Casco Bay Lines. In 2007, two companies competed to build large projects involving hotels and office space on the pier. The City Council was divided between the rival projects submitted by The Olympia Cos. and Ocean Properties, and eventually nothing was built.

Rebecca Owen, economic and commercial officer for the U.S. Embassy who attended a news conference Thursday unveiling the incubator proposal, said investors want to locate their business in Portland because they can build on the relationships that have developed between Maine and Iceland since the Icelandic steamship line Eimskip moved its North American operations to Portland a year and a half ago.

In addition, Maine has healthy marine resources, particularly its lobster fishery, and is home to several research institutions, such as the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland, the University of New England in Biddeford and the Downeast Institute in Beals.

“Maine has too much to offer to stay off the map,” she said.

Gov. Paul LePage, who in June visited the Iceland Ocean Cluster building in Reykjavik, said at the news conference that he loved the concept.

“We believe that Maine, with our lobster fishery and the resources we have off the coast of Maine, can make this cluster concept work,” he said.

Brennan said the collaborative model is a good fit for Portland because of the city’s high percentage of college-educated residents and the access that creates to an educated work force for the companies that join the Ocean Cluster.

“This is important for Portland and important for the state and a really exciting opportunity,” he said. “This gives us an international reach that is compelling.”

Arnold said eight businesses have agreed to be part of the project, but none was ready to be identified, though he said one focuses on creating medical products from discarded lobster shells.

Arnold supports the location of the incubator in Portland, rather than a suburban environment.

“You need a certain amount of urban density, a certain amount of buzz to attract the right people,” he said.

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