With two more tenants expected to sign leases in the next couple months, the former Saunders Brothers property is close to capacity, less than two years after being purchased by J.B. Brown & Sons.

For years, the subject of a heated controversy in the city, the property between Main Street and Westbrook Arterial which had been occupied by the Saunders Brothers dowel mill was sold to J.B. Brown & Sons in April 2007.

According to Vin Veroneau, president and chief operating officer of J.B. Brown, the company transformed the former mill property into 134,000 square feet of office and warehouse space. The first tenant, Woodfords Family Services, moved into an office there in January 2008, and all the remaining office space has since been filled.

Four warehouse spaces remain, Veroneau said, but two could be filled within the next three months – one as soon as this week.

Other tenants that have moved into the park include Group Main Stream, a nonprofit organization that serves people with developmental disabilities; Bio-Oregon, which sells and distributes fish feed to hatcheries; Maine Expedited Freight, and Moore Concrete Pumping.

According to Keith Luke, director of economic and community development in the city, the mix of uses is ideal for the Westbrook business park – and much more favorable than one business occupying the site, like the Wal-Mart proposed in 2005.

“It really speaks to what we’ve tried to do in Westbrook, which is diversify the economy,” he said.

Luke said relying on one company or industry as the backbone of the business community makes the city vulnerable to the ebbs and flows in the economy.

But the mix of smaller companies is not only better for the city’s business base. According to Eileen Shutts, a leader of the local opposition to Wal-Mart, it’s preferable for residents, as well.

“If you’re on the arterial and you look out there, it just looks so much better than it used to,” Shutts said about J.B. Brown’s renovations to the site.

Sitting unassumingly down the road and up a hill from the car dealerships on the corner of Larrabee Road and Saunders Way, the quiet business park is a far cry from the Wal-Mart Supercenter Shutts fought so hard against. She said she wasn’t even sure what new businesses had moved in over the past year.

“Imagine if that was all giant retail, and the lights and traffic,” she said. “It just would have been disastrous.”

Mayor Bruce Chuluda said he still receives calls from residents who would have liked to see a Wal-Mart come to the city, but as far he’s concerned, “it’s water over the dam.”

“J.B. Brown has done a great job taking and enhancing that piece of property,” Chuluda said. “I think, for that, the citizens ought to be thankful.”

Luke said J.B. Brown’s investment in renovating the site before any leases were signed was instrumental in getting tenants there. Otherwise, he said, it had the potential to become a derelict property and liability to the city.

“The vision and the investment…is really entirely responsible for the success of that development,” said Luke.

Veroneau said there’s still room left on the 27 acres for more development, once the existing buildings are occupied.

According to Tom Moulton, a partner in the Portland-based commercial real estate company The Dunham Group, well-located, high-quality business parks leasing space at reasonable prices “will be the ones that fair best in a soft economy.”

Moulton said, despite the overall economy, he’s not surprised the Saunders Business Park is attracting tenants, because it has all of those qualities.

With access to a railway and two turnpike exits, Luke said the site is ripe for continued development.

“It’s perfectly positioned,” he said.

A property once eyed by Wal-Mart, the Saunders Business Park is now home to nonprofit Woodford Family Services; Group Main Stream, a nonprofit organization that serves people with developmental disabilities; Bio-Oregon, which sells and distributes fish feed to hatcheries; Maine Expedited Freight, and Moore Concrete Pumping.