REAL ESTATE & DEVELOPMENT

Historic Rufus Deering site slated for development

Andrew Moser of Portland carries a TV to the check-out line at Best Buy just after midnight Friday at the Maine Mall. Stores were awash in Black Friday shoppers, as retailers throughout Maine opened at midnight to lure customers with door-busting deals. The annual shopping extravaganza that extends into the weekend is the kickoff to a national holiday shopping season that analysts believe will top $1 trillion. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)

After 162 years in business, Rufus Deering Lumber Co. of Portland plans to close its Commercial Street lumberyard. Senior Vice President Dan Labrie said the property, which has become extremely valuable, is under contract. City spokeswoman Jessica Grondin said the buyer is Reger Dasco Properties, a partnership of developers based in Massachusetts and New York that has built high-end condominium projects in Portland and elsewhere. Labrie said the company will cease operating Nov. 30 and begin the process of transferring most of its staff and assets to competitor Eldredge Lumber & Hardware in Portland and York. Roughly three-fourths of Rufus Deering’s 26 employees will be hired by Eldredge, he said. Read the story.

Home sales still strong

Despite rising interest rates, home sales across Maine continued to increase at a healthy pace in October, according to the Maine Association of Realtors. The association reported 1,639 sales of existing single-family homes for the month, an increase of 5 percent compared with October 2015. Prices also increased slightly in October, it said. The median sale price reached $192,500, a rise of 2.7 percent. The median indicates that half of homes sold for more and half sold for less. Ed Gardner, president of the association, said this activity is taking place despite an upward tick in mortgage interest rates. Regionally, sales in the Northeast were up 1.4 percent in October from the previous year, and the regional median sale price rose 2.9 percent to $255,500, according to the National Association of Realtors. Read the story.

DEFENSE

Zumwalt breaks down in Panama Canal

The USS Zumwalt has suffered another mechanical breakdown, this one requiring that it be towed to a port in the Panama Canal. The Zumwalt, a first-of-its class “stealth” destroyer built at Bath Iron Works, was transiting the canal when it lost propulsion in one of its two drive shafts and crew members noticed water coming into bearings connecting the shaft with its electric motor, according to reports by USNI News, a publication of the U.S. Naval Institute, and the Navy Times. The Zumwalt also suffered “minor cosmetic damage” when the ship made contact with the canal walls. Tugboats were required to tow the Zumwalt, and the guided missile destroyer is now undergoing repairs on the eastern side of the canal at the former U.S. Naval Station Rodman, USNI News and Navy Times reported. This is at least the second mechanical problem with the newly commissioned destroyer, although naval experts say such issues are common for the lead ship in a new class, especially one as packed with new technology as the Zumwalt. Read the story.

Cianbro gets nearly $30 million to upgrade Kittery shipyard’s infrastructure

Pittsfield-based Cianbro Corp. has won a $28.8 million contract from the U.S. Navy to do repairs at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. The announcement came in a joint statement Monday by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, who said Cianbro was awarded a $28,860,243 contract to perform structural repairs at the shipyard. Cianbro will repair and modernize parts of the open wharf structures at the shipyard’s Berth 11. The project aims to restore the load-carrying capacity of the crane rail system on the shipyard’s waterfront, while providing corrosion protection to the wharf. The work is expected to be completed by March 2019. Read the story.

New leader takes the helm at BIW

Bath Iron Works’ parent company selected a veteran manager to take over the shipyard from Fred Harris, who is retiring after a three-year stint that saw substantial workforce growth but also the loss of a “must win” contract. General Dynamics announced Monday that Dirk Lesko – a BIW employee since 1990 currently serving as general manager – will become president on Jan. 1. He will take over at a time when the shipyard is bustling with work but faces a potential slowdown in the not-so-distant future unless the pace of Navy shipbuilding picks up. Harris, 71, is retiring as the president of both BIW and General Dynamics’ NASSCO shipyard in San Diego, a dual position he has held since November 2013. Under Harris’ tenure, BIW grew to more than 6,000 employees – a workforce level not seen in more than a decade at the shipyard, which is one of Maine’s largest employers. The shipyard also completed work on the largest and most technologically advanced destroyer ever built for the Navy, the more than $4 billion “stealth destroyer” USS Zumwalt. But it lost a contract earlier this year to build new Coast Guard cutters, which Harris deemed essential for the future of the yard. Read the story.

GENERAL BUSINESS

New overtime rules get a reprieve

A Texas judge’s ruling that delays implementation of a new federal overtime law throws more confusion into an already muddy topic for Maine businesses. The U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas granted a nationwide preliminary injunction that prevents the U.S. Department of Labor from nearly doubling the threshold under which certain salaried workers must be get overtime pay at a time-and-a-half rate. The law, scheduled to take effect next Thursday, had sent Maine businesses and nonprofits scurrying last summer to see whether they needed to make changes – including awarding pay raises to some staff – in order to comply with the law. But now, Judge Amos Mazzant’s ruling allows the legality of the regulation to be examined in more detail by the court. Advisers are cautioning employers that have already made changes to comply with the new OT rule to stay the course since the injunction is only temporary. Read the story.

Woodward & Curran buys California firm

The state’s biggest engineering firm just got bigger with the acquisition of a 125-person firm in California. Woodard & Curran of Portland announced Monday that it has acquired RMC Water & Environment, an environmental engineering company that focuses on developing services to address water usage and protections. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. With the acquisition, Woodard & Curran’s footprint now extends into 12 states with 26 offices. The combined firm represents 1,000 engineers, scientists, planners, treatment facility operators and support staff who expect to deliver more than $200 million in projects this year, according to a release from the company. Read the story.

BANKING & FINANCE

Architect of Dodd-Frank warns of tinkering by Trump

Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a Maine resident who co-sponsored sweeping financial industry reforms in 2010 that President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to repeal and replace, said doing so would be harmful to consumers. Frank said rolling back key components of the Dodd-Frank Act, passed in the wake of 2008’s financial industry meltdown, could give rise to a repeat occurrence of that crisis. The goals of Dodd-Frank include promoting the financial stability of the U.S., curtailing speculative investments by financial institutions, and increasing transparency and accountability among banks, investment firms and insurance companies. The former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee suggests that it’s possible after Donald Trump has had time to examine Dodd-Frank in more detail, he might recognize the value of its various consumer protections. But representatives of Maine’s banking industry said Dodd-Frank has not worked as intended. Instead, they said it has created onerous requirements that have made it especially difficult for smaller financial institutions and their customers. Read the story.

RETAIL

Group starts petition to exempt tipped wages from impending changes

A Facebook group calling itself Restaurant Workers of Maine on Tuesday started a petition drive aimed at reinstating the Maine tipped wage credit. They say the credit, which allows tipped workers to earn half the minimum wage, was eliminated when Mainers approved raising the minimum age in the Nov. 8 referendum. Question 4 not only raised the minimum wage from $7.50 an hour to $12 by 2020, but it also raised the wage for service workers who receive tips from $3.75 an hour to $5 an hour in 2017. By 2024, service industry workers would be paid a minimum hourly wage of $12 under the new law. The petition, which organizers said had been signed by 300 people, seeks to show lawmakers that there is considerable support for leaving things the way they are. Several business groups have said they will ask lawmakers to amend the new ruling when the next legislative session convenes in December. Read the story.

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