BRUNSWICK

Almost 5,000 jobs were lost as a result of when Brunswick Naval Air Station closed. Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority wants to bring some of those jobs back, and it’s hoping a new business incubator will help.

TechPlace officially opened last week, according to MRRA Executive Director Steve Levesque.

One business, IT company Harbor Digital, has already moved in, and others — an aerospace company, law firm Drummond Woodsum will have an office to provide support services — are expected to have moved in this week.

Six or seven more businesses will have opened up shop in the coming weeks, said Levesque.

Levesque described TechPlace as a hybrid of shared office spaces, joint bio-labs and socalled maker-spaces with shared manufacturing equipment.

Target sectors include advanced materials, composites, aerospace and aviation, biotechnology and biomedical, renewable energy and information technology.

Tenants can lease a desk in a bullpen or larger, private office space, labs and have access to industrial work space and equipment.

“You can rent anything in here, from a desk all the way up to 2,000-3,000 square feet of shop space,” Levesque said.

TechPlace may be appealing to micro-businesses and startups with limited resources. Desks, WiFi, conference rooms are easily accessible.

TechPlace will also be hosting classes on topics such as business planning, patent protection and hiring.

“What TechPlace can offer for startups and early-stage companies is the infrastructure — not just the facility piece, but the collaborations, the access to business resources, the mentoring,” said TechPlace Administrator Kristine Schuman. “It’s going to be all those things, brought to you.”

“Fundamentally, we want to spawn successful technology businesses in Maine,” said Levesque.

“They’re more likely to succeed if they start in an incubator than going it alone,” said MRRA Communications Coordinator Ben Sturtevant.

Fully occupied, Levesque predicted that up to 75 businesses could have a presence at TechPlace.

“When you get that much critical mass, sometimes people join forces and they form a stronger company,” he said.

TechPlace is being funded in part through a federal grant. MRRA is managing the program and is partnering with Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership and Coastal Counties Workforce.

Located at 74 Orion St., at a 93,000-square-foot former aircraft maintenance facility, TechPlace is connected to the massive Hangar 4.

The building would have cost about $10 million to build from the ground up with the included infrastructure, Levesque said.

Renovations at TechPlace estimated at $1.5 million began in September. The modern metal-and-glass office areas do not recall the Navy’s presence in the building. Industrial areas, however, still display murals leftover from the military era.

Industrial sections include massive spaces that already house industrial equipment left by the Navy, including a set of overhead cranes that can lift six tons.

Shared spaces, whether it be a laboratory, classroom, conference room, the game and break room, or manufacturing space, will be part of TechPlace’s incubation/networking strategy to provide what Levesque called, “a melding of the minds.”

“We want to have a collision of innovations,” said Levesque.

Since its inception, MRRA has been trying to accommodate large business opportunities and grow small businesses. With TechPlace focused on small business growth, the authority can now do both.

“This is a core element of what we’ve been trying to do for nine years,” said Levesque.

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com