Ronald Sharron plans to build an industrial complex.
MECHANIC FALLS – The purchaser of the former Marcal Mill told the Planning Board Monday night he intends to turn the industrial property into a business complex that would provide more than 300 jobs.
Ronald Sharron said he is close to closing on his purchase of the mill property from Pine Tree Waste. Sharron is a former Portland area resident who currently lives in Lewiston. He told the board he is planning to relocate to Mechanic Falls.
Sharron’s company, called Riverboat International, is based in Lewiston. He said it is a holding company encompassing 12 businesses.
He said his planned renovations would convert the industrial property into a complex with an old-fashioned look called the Riverboat Complex. There would be shops and retail businesses and medical and dental offices. He said when all possible tenants are in the complex within a few years there would be between 300 and 350 jobs created. “The bottom pay would be around 11 bucks an hour,” he said.
“I have a marina in mind I’m interested in building here that would employ about 40 people,” Sharon said.
“If I do real well, I would entertain giving a portion of the profits to the town,” he said.
“I’m excited. I hope it comes together. I really do,” said Planning Board Chairman James Depalma.
In other business, the board approved plans for a self-storage facility that was temporarily put on hold April 21 pending a permit from the Maine Department of Transportation for ingress and egress off Route 121 and answers to several questions.
Mark Chase was granted the special exemption permit to build a self-storage facility, an automotive repair garage and a display area where people could rent spaces to show vehicles they are selling at the 15-acre site near the Oxford town line.
Conditions Chase must comply with include that no hazardous materials be stored.
Chase plans to build the facility in four phases beginning with a 24-by-120-foot building with self-storage units. Additional phases, which call for two additional buildings housing self-storage units, would be built within three years. There would be space for outdoor storage of automobiles, recreational vehicles and boats.
The initial storage building would be about 2,800 square feet, well under the 5,000 square feet that would make it a major, rather than a minor development. The four phases would put the total project above 5,000 square feet.
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