BRUNSWICK
A new bill introduced Wednesday by U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe would make it easier for small former military bases such as Brunswick Landing and the former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone to attract new business tenants and create jobs.
The bill would loosen restrictions on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station’s ability to apply for federal funds or grants offered by the Small Business Administration, which could then be used to attract or even fund establishment of commercial tenants.
Several prospective tenants are weighing relocation to Brunswick Landing, said Steve Levesque, executive director of Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority. Loosening the existing boundaries could be the dealmaker they are looking for.
“The ones we’re talking to right now are in the information technology industry, and moving here would create upwards of a couple hundred new jobs,” Levesque said.
Levesque drafted a letter on behalf of the MRRA board of directors requesting the change.
“We’re very pleased that (legislators) are considering this change, because it’s what we asked them for,” Levesque said. “This is a redevelopment tool that we have that currently is not very effective the way it is structured.”
Current legislation limits eligibility to applicants who still either live or work within the physical boundaries of the base. It’s a hindrance to smaller installations such as Brunswick which, at its height, only hosted about 2,400 military and civilian personnel — many of whom lived elsewhere and commuted. broaden Brunswick Landing’s current “HUBZone” eligibility to include the town or county in which the former base is situated, as well as neighboring communities, up to a total population base of 50,000.
According to U.S. Census data, Brunswick’s population as of the 2010 Census was 20,278, down from a 2005 count of 21,849.
The Armed Forces Base Realignment and Closure Committee voted in 2005 to decommission the former P-3 Orion submarine hunting base, paving the way for it to be turned over to a quasimunicipal agency for redevelopment.
The former base, now retitled Brunswick Landing, was declared a “HUBZone” by the SBA in 2010 — a designation intended to give it an advantage when potential tenants applied for startup or expansion funds.
But the law’s language, combined with Brunswick’s relatively small size, have hamstrung efforts.
“What this does is broaden the HUBZone’s boundary to make it more effective to enable redevelopment efforts,” Levesque said. “The way it’s written now, 35 percent of a business’ employees have to live within the HUBZone for it to meet the requirements.”
That definition excludes most, if not all, of MRRA’s current tenants.
The Snowe-Collins bill currently is headed for committee. Kevin Kelley, a Collins spokesman, said he did not have an estimate of when the bill could be signed into law.
jtleonard@timesrecord.com
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