TOPSHAM
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority has closed on the sale of the former Navy Commissary building and accompanying 5.6 acres of land at the Topsham Commerce Park to help a Brunswick coffee roaster expand and perhaps create a food distribution hub.
JHR Development — developer of Maine Street Station in Brunswick — is the buyer. A purchase price was not disclosed.
MRRA said it is the first commercial transaction it has completed in Topsham excluding housing land at the former Topsham Annex.
The sale allows JHR to proceed with leases to The Maine Harvest Co. and Wicked Joe Coffee, which MRRA said will collectively add more than 50 new jobs to Topsham and fully lease the building.
At a special town meeting in September, Topsham voters authorized the town to submit a Community Development Block Grant to the state’s Economic Development Program on behalf of Wicked Joe Coffee Roasting Co., in the amount of $270,000. The Brunswickbased company committed to create nine new jobs as part of that process.
Wicked Joe Coffee currently is located in a 10,000- square-foot space on Water Street in Brunswick, where it employs 12 people.
The coffee company plans to take up 25,000 square feet of space in the commissary that will include space for coffee tasting, conference rooms, storage and production.
The Maine Harvest Co. is a local food distributor that seeks to give farmers access to wider markets. Its officials have collected letters of intent from farmers who are committing to sell certain volumes of produce through the operation.
Coastal Enterprises Inc. — the nonprofit financier due to relocate a new campus on Federal Street in Brunswick — is helping The Maine Harvest Co. find investors.
The Maine Harvest Co. also has applied for a $240,000 Community Development Block Grant, in exchange for which they would agree to create eight jobs.
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