Shaw Brothers Construction Inc. of Gorham wants to buy 260 acres of undeveloped land off Route 25 to create public access to the Presumpscot River and return the rest of the property to its former agricultural use.

Jon and Dan Shaw, the company’s owners, have offered to buy the Gorham property for $1.6 million from its owner, ecomaine, a trash-disposal agency operated by 20 municipalities in southern Maine.

Ecomaine’s board of directors decided Oct. 15 to sell the property on the open market for $1.9 million, giving others the opportunity to bid on the wide swath of land near Mosher Corner that runs from Main Street to the riverbank.

If the Shaw brothers succeed in buying the half-wooded parcel, it would be the first venture by the Shaw Brothers Family Foundation, a nonprofit they plan to create with a mission to support agricultural and recreational activities.

“It’s a special piece of land,” Jon Shaw said Friday. “It used to be all hayfields. We both grew up on a farm in Gorham and there aren’t many of them left. If we could save this one, that would be great.”

Shaw Brothers Construction builds roads, develops construction sites and operates several gravel pits in Gorham, including at its headquarters at 341 Mosher Road, near the ecomaine parcel.

Shaw said he and his brother have pursued the ecomaine property for three years because they feel the need to give back to the community that has given them so much.

He likened the proposal to Shaw Park, about 3 miles away off Route 237, where the company helped to develop access to the river, historic sites and recreational facilities.

Shaw pitched the idea for the ecomaine property to the Gorham Town Council in April, promising to build a road, parking lot and walking trail for complete public access to the riverfront. A farmers market and other commercial uses would be developed along Route 25 to raise local property taxes.

“The bulk of the property would be used for farming and would be restricted from public access during the growing season,” Jon Shaw wrote to the council. “However, during the winter, the land could be used by the public for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling and skating.”

Shaw said the project would be developed over time by Shaw Brothers Construction crews when they’re not working on road or building projects.

Public access to the river and walking trails would be granted “indefinitely” via deed easements.

The Town Council voted unanimously to endorse the Shaw Brothers’ proposal. Shaw presented the idea to the ecomaine board in May and the board established a committee to review it through the summer, said Kevin Roche, CEO of ecomaine, which operates a recycling facility and trash-to-energy incinerator on Blueberry Road in Portland.

While board members appreciated the Shaw Brothers’ proposal, the committee recommended seeking buyers on the open market to ensure that a potential sale was handled in a transparent and fair process, Roche said.

The property is expected to be advertised for the first time Sunday in the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.The land is zoned for industrial uses and includes a section of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal, a waterway built in the 1830s to connect Sebago Lake to Portland Harbor.

Ecomaine purchased the 260-acre parcel in 1989 for $3.5 million, according to Gorham property tax records.

Its current assessed value is $2.5 million, though ecomaine pays no taxes.

The quasi-municipal agency is owned and operated by Bridgton, Cape Elizabeth, Casco, Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Gorham, Gray, Harrison, Hollis, Limington, Lyman, North Yarmouth, Portland, Pownal, Scarborough, South Portland, Waterboro, Windham and Yarmouth.

Previously known as Regional Waste Systems, the agency first planned to establish a processing facility for construction and demolition debris at the site.

More recently, it considered building an organic waste energy recovery plant. Both would have been too costly to develop on that site, Roche said.

Moreover, the riverfront property contains a lot of wetlands, so it wouldn’t be suitable to develop a landfill for ash from ecomaine’s incinerator, Roche said.

The agency has a 250-acre ash landfill on the South Portland-Scarborough border that’s permitted for use through 2038.

“In the foreseeable future, we don’t have a need for (the Gorham) property,” Roche said. “But we’re not in a position that we just have to unload this property.”

 

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