REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION

Time & Temperature Building seized by bank

After years of neglect and a mass exodus of tenants, downtown Portland’s iconic Time & Temperature Building has been seized by the bank. The 14-story office tower at 477 Congress St., which opened in 1924 as the 12-story Chapman Building, can be recognized from miles around by the 30-foot-wide, 9-foot-high digital clock on its roof, a Portland landmark since it was installed in 1964. Behind the scenes, the building’s most recent owner, a subsidiary of Brooklyn-based Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates LLC, had been negotiating with its commercial mortgage loan servicer to reduce the loan’s $12 million principal. Those negotiations broke down in late April, and the holder of the mortgage’s promissory note, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., took possession. The property seized by the bank also includes nearby Monument Square Parking Garage. Read the story.

Apartment complexes sell for $87.5 million

A Massachusetts investment firm has purchased two adjacent apartment communities in South Portland for a total of $87.5 million in the latest example of southern Maine’s hot multi-family housing market. Brokers involved in the deal said it was the highest dollar purchase of its type in southern Maine’s history. Jones Street Investment Partners of Hingham, Massachusetts, purchased the 120-unit Liberty Commons and the 500-unit Redbank Village, both at 62 MacArthur Circle East in South Portland. The seller was Dallas-based private equity firm Lone Star Funds. The sale price per unit was slightly more than $141,000. Read the story.

HEALTH CARE

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ACA insurers submit rate hike requests

Insurance companies are requesting double-digit rate increases for Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance in Maine, according to rate filings released Wednesday by the state Bureau of Insurance. However, for most customers in Maine, all or nearly all of the proposed 2017 rate increases will be absorbed by government subsidies. According to the rate filings proposed for 2017 individual plan coverage, Community Health Options is requesting a 22.8 percent increase, Harvard Pilgrim is requesting 18.7 percent, Aetna is seeking 14.2 percent and Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is requesting 14.1 percent. The rate increases are not final and are subject to review by the Bureau of Insurance and the federal government. Next year will be the first year that Aetna will offer marketplace coverage in Maine. Because of the way the Affordable Care Act is structured, those who receive subsidies – about 90 percent of the 84,000 in Maine who have marketplace insurance – will see zero or minimal premium increases in 2017. Read the story.

LEGAL

Poland Spring wins battle over water rights

Maine’s highest court sided with the parent company of water bottler Poland Spring and a Fryeburg utility Thursday in a case over rights to groundwater. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that it found “no abuse of discretion or violation of a statutory or constitutional provision” in the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s approval of Fryeburg Water Company’s long-term contract with Nestle Waters of North America. Fryeburg resident Bruce Taylor and the nonprofit organization Food and Water Watch had appealed the October 2014 PUC decision on grounds that the initial 25-year contract goes beyond the authority of the water district’s charter and deprives the commission of future oversight. The contract gives Poland Spring – a subsidiary of Nestle Waters – leasing rights to withdraw up to 603,000 gallons of water per day at the same basic rate as Fryeburg residents. Read the story.

MANUFACTURING

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After expansion, sales up at bovine medicine maker

ImmuCell Corp. has completed an expansion that will allow the company to better keep up with customer demand for its flagship product, the Portland-based maker of bovine health products reported Wednesday. The news came as part of the company’s first-quarter earnings statement. In it, ImmuCell reported sales of $3 million in the first quarter, down 3.7 percent from a year earlier. Net income for the quarter was $452,000, or 11 cents a share, down slightly from $479,000, or 15 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2015. However, total annual sales increased by 17 percent from a year earlier, to $10.1 million during the 12-month period that ended March 31. The company also noted that as of March 31 it had a backlog of orders valued at $1.7 million, up from a $1.3 million backlog a year earlier. The company had been working to double its production capacity in order to speed up shipments of its primary product, called First Defense, a natural product to boost the immunity of newborn calves. Read the story.

Sanford rubber maker sells division

A longtime Sanford manufacturer has sold its foam rubber line, which accounted for about half of its sales, to its Connecticut rival. Expanded Rubber Products is laying off five of its 33 employees and downsizing its operations in Sanford Industrial Estates from two buildings to one, said Principal Clayton Ney. Ney wouldn’t discuss why he had decided to sell off the company’s sponge rubber sheet and roll product line, which is used to cushion a wide range of items, such as floor mats or mousepads, or for how much. He called the May 4 sale a “business decision” and the company would now focus its attention on its other business lines, like the production of expanded plastic packaging used in the shipment of electronic equipment. Read the story.

FOOD & BEVERAGE

Snack maker named Tory Burch fellow

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Kate McAleer, owner of the craft snack bar business Bixby & Co. in Rockland, has been named a Tory Burch Foundation fellow, a designation that comes with a prize of $10,000 and a trip to New York to visit with the famous designer. McAleer was one of 10 winners selected by the Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Competition for women entrepreneurs, and is the only winner from New England. The $10,000 prize is a business education grant, McAleer said. The fellowship also includes a three-day workshop at Tory Burch Headquarters and the opportunity to pitch for a $100,000 grant. Read the story.

Brewer expands to increase capacity

Foundation Brewing Co. is starting an expansion this month to increase its fermentation capacity, packaging operations and to expand its tasting room. The Portland brewery, located at One Industrial Way in a cluster of craft breweries, is taking over three spaces formerly occupied by Bissell Brothers Brewing. The project will bring Foundation’s total square footage to 7,500 and is paving the way for further expansion in 2017, according to a release from the company. The larger tasting room will be open more hours than the current one, and the expansion of the fermentation capacity means the brewery can create its more popular beers more frequently. Read the story.

SPORTS

New hockey teamed wooed for arena

Minor-league hockey could return to Portland as soon as the fall of 2017 if a partnership between a former player and former team executive proves successful. The Portland Pirates announced last week that the team has been sold and will leave the city. The American Hockey League’s Board of Governors will meet within two weeks to vote on the sale and relocation of the franchise to Springfield, Massachusetts. W. Godfrey Wood, general manager and president of the Pirates during their first three seasons, and Brad Church, a former Pirates player and the team’s chief operating officer for the past two years, are building a team of investors to bring an ECHL team to Cross Insurance Arena. The ECHL is considered the third tier of professional hockey in North America, below the National Hockey League and the AHL. Wood and Church hope to land an ECHL expansion team in June. If so, they plan to keep the Pirates name and original logo and begin play in the 2017-18 season. Read the story.

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