REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

Downtown Waterville slated for $20 million boost

Downtown revitalization efforts in Waterville got a boost Tuesday night as the Harold Alfond Foundation and Colby College officials announced that they will infuse $20 million into projects to launch what will become a further investment of “tens of millions of dollars more” in the city’s center. The Alfond Foundation is pledging a $10 million grant toward the effort, matching Colby’s $10 million investment toward revitalization. City officials, downtown organizations, businesspeople, arts advocates and others have been meeting to discuss ways to help revitalize downtown, expand art offerings, draw businesses, bring more people to live and work downtown and to help boost economic development. Read the story.

Moody’s buys former racetrack in Gorham

Moody’s Collision Centers, the auto collision repair chain, has increased its footprint in Gorham by buying a 62-acre former racetrack from Hannaford supermarkets. Shawn Moody, founder of Moody’s Collision Centers and a Gorham native, said he intends to unveil plans for the site in the next few weeks, after the company undertakes a cleanup of the property. Moody said the purchase is part of a broader effort to expand and diversify the company’s holdings as it approaches its 40th year in business. The company paid $1.2 million for the former racetrack. It owns a Moody’s Collision and Auto Body Repair Center just up the road from the new site. Gorham town officials say they are grateful that the land, known locally as The Fairgrounds, will be developed after sitting on the market for three years. Read the story.

New apartment buildings proposed in Westbrook

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A developer wants to add nine new apartment buildings to a Westbrook subdivision that has already prompted calls for a moratorium on residential construction and substantial changes to the city’s zoning. That new construction would add 108 market-rate units to Blue Spruce Farm, where nearly 200 single-family homes and apartments are already being built. Risbara Bros. had previously hoped to build an even larger extension to the existing neighborhood, but scaled back the plans because of a legal dispute with the landowner. The Westbrook Planning Board reviewed the most recent sketch plan for the newer extension on Tuesday night. Read the story.

Shopping center on Westbrook/Portland line OK’d

The Westbrook Planning Board has approved a large shopping center to be built at a former quarry. Wal-Mart has been the only confirmed tenant at Dirigo Plaza for months, but the latest documents presented to the Planning Board on Tuesday night included the layout for a Chick-Fil-A restaurant as well. Those national brands will be part of 500,000 square feet of new retail on the 80-acre parcel at the intersection of Main Street – Route 25B – and Larrabee Road, between two exits on the Maine Turnpike. The developer, Jeffrey Gove, estimated about 25 retailers and restaurants will eventually open in Dirigo Plaza, but he declined to name any others. The project could open by fall 2017. Read the story.

BANKING & FINANCE

ImmuCell seeks $3.5 million to finish new facility

Portland-based ImmuCell Corp. said Tuesday that it plans to seek $3.5 million in private investment to help fund a $20 million production facility for a new animal health product for which the company is seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. ImmuCell also released a preliminary earnings estimate for the third quarter, in which product sales were down 20 percent from a year earlier. Maine’s smallest publicly traded company, which makes products that improve bovine health and productivity in the dairy and beef industries, said it has entered into agreements with institutional and accredited investors for the private placement of roughly $3.5 million of ImmuCell’s common stock. ImmuCell said in a news release that it has agreed to sell nearly 660,000 shares at $5.25 per share to outside investors. ImmuCell stock, which trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol ICCC, was trading at $7 a share when the market opened Tuesday. Read the story.

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RETAIL

Save-A-Lot grocery chain sold to Canadian firm

A discount grocery chain with nine locations in Maine is being sold to a Canadian private equity firm for $1.36 billion. Supervalu, the Minneapolis parent company of the Save-A-Lot chain of small supermarkets, announced the agreement to sell the chain to Onex Corp. of Toronto on Monday. The deal is still subject to customary closing conditions. In connection with the sale, Supervalu will enter into a five-year professional services agreement to provide management of day-to-day operations for Save-A-Lot, including cloud services, merchandising technology, payroll, finance and other services, according to a news release announcing the sale. Supervalu, which is one of the largest grocery chains in the U.S. with more than 3,300 stores, intends to use the money from the sale to pay down $750 million in debt and to grow its other divisions. Read the story.

 Jeweler named Retailer of the Year

The Retail Association of Maine has named Day’s Jewelers as its Retailer of the Year. The trade group, which represents 400 businesses in Maine, announced the selection of the Waterville-based jewelry chain Thursday. The award will be presented at the association’s annual meeting Oct. 27 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport. Day’s was chosen for its reputation as a growing family business, patient and careful long term growth, social, ethical and environmental responsibility, and staff development procedures, according to a release from the association. The annual award is given to a Maine retailer that demonstrates continued growth in employees or sales; commitment of company resources to community projects; and creation of a positive work environment. Read the story.

LABOR

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Report cites loss of prime-age men from labor force

A growing share of men in the prime of adulthood are dropping out of the labor force in Maine, adding to the state’s loss of able-bodied workers from the aging population and lack of in-migration. Labor force participation of males age 25 to 54 has declined over the past four decades in Maine, with a sharp drop-off beginning in 1990, according to a report by the Maine Department of Labor’s Center for Workforce Research and Information. The labor force is the combined number of employed workers and active job-seekers. The share of “prime-age” males in Maine who are working or looking for work declined from nearly 95 percent in 1970 to slightly more than 86 percent in 2014, the report says. The primary reason is the loss of manufacturing and the middle-income jobs it created for workers who lack higher education. Many men who were laid off from such jobs appear to have given up on finding new employment, it says. The report’s authors say it is essential to Maine’s economy that the state come up with ways to bring more of those prime-age men back into the labor force. Read the story.

ENERGY

Winter fuel prices expected to rise slightly

The statewide average price for fuel oil inched above $2 a gallon this week for the first time since last November, ushering in a heating season in which oil prices are expected to rise moderately. With winter temperatures predicted to be closer to normal, Mainers can expect a heating season that – on balance – is also likely to be closer to normal. It appears that there will be a sufficient supply of all fuels. The latest price survey by the Governor’s Energy Office, released Wednesday, shows fuel oil at an average of $2.01 a gallon statewide, ranging from a low of $1.76 in western Maine to $2.20 in central, eastern and northern regions. The survey follows projections last week from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that higher crude-oil costs will push up retail prices for heating oil by 42 cents a gallon over the winter. The federal agency also is forecasting moderate price increases for propane and natural gas. Read the story.

PUC hears testimony on solar incentives

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A parade of residents and small-business owners told the Maine Public Utilities Commission on Monday that its proposal to reduce financial incentives for homeowners using solar panels would stifle the growth of solar and already is having a chilling effect on installations. Several who testified at a public hearing said the commission should withdraw its proposal and let the Legislature set solar policy. But those comments were tempered by testimony on behalf of utilities and by Gov. Paul LePage’s energy director, and from a consumer affairs consultant who said the current financial incentives for rooftop solar hurt other ratepayers. And the state’s public advocate said the PUC’s proposal failed to determine the actual impact on electric customers and should be withdrawn for further analysis. The PUC has said it plans to make a decision before year’s end. Read the story.

COMMERCIAL FISHERIES

Fishermen observe new techniques in Japan

A group of Maine fishermen from Cape Elizabeth to Stonington traveled to northern Japan this month to study mechanized techniques for growing scallops. Funded in part by a grant from the United States-Japan Foundation, the 10-person group traveled to the coastal region of the Aomori prefecture to learn about the machines that the fishing and aquaculture cooperatives there use to grow scallops on vertical lines suspended in the sea, a farming method proven to speed up their growth. The group also learned about shellfish processing and value-added shellfish products. Read the story.

TRANSPORTATION

New train shed ready in Brunswick

The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority unveiled its new train layover facility in Brunswick this weekend, more than five years after it first proposed the project to improve service on the Amtrak Downeaster. The 60,000-square-foot facility, which is longer than two football fields, will allow the rail authority to begin the overnight servicing of Amtrak Downeaster passenger trains starting in November. Once it becomes fully operational Nov. 21, the layover building will allow the Amtrak Downeaster to operate a third train between Brunswick and Boston – a service that Amtrak officials say is sorely needed, especially by passengers who might want to spend the day and night in Boston at a Bruins or Celtics game. Currently, Amtrak only operates two passenger trains north of Portland on a daily basis. Read the story.


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