Economic Development Overview

Even in light of a global recession, Lewiston –Auburn continues to benefit from a number of new economic development and community enhancement projects. Today’s Lewiston-Auburn is a very different and more dynamic place than the Twin Cities of the past few decades.

Over the past 30 years, the state’s second largest population center has steadily transitioned from relying on textile, shoe and traditional manufacturing to robust sectors such as health care, high-precision manufacturing, distribution/logistics, financial and business services, and the creative economy.

The area’s health care industry is among the largest in the state, as more people in L-A are employed in health care-related work than any other pursuit. Both hospitals are renovating their emergency rooms and labs at a combined investment of $60 million. St. Mary’s Medical Center has also constructed a 20,000-square-foot satellite facility in Auburn with space for X-ray, cardiac rehabilitation, physical/occupational rehabilitation, and health screening departments, among other amenities.

A new Community-Based Outpatient Clinic for military veterans is set to open in Lewiston in 2011. The clinic will be located at 15 Challenger Drive off Alfred Plourde Parkway. In late January, Maine Congressman Michael Michaud announced that federal funding had been approved to build the new Veterans Administration clinic in Lewiston.

The result of all this diversification helps cushion L-A against the sharp blows of the current recession.

For example, TD Bank’s new state-of-the-art call center to be located at The Auburn Mall will employ up to 500 mostly full-time workers when running at full capacity. The 60,000-square-foot facility will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Efficient Design)-certified and include several environmentally-friendly features.

According to PR Newswire, TD Bank has a 10-year lease on the property, and the price tag for the project is estimated at $16 million. The facility is expected to open by mid-2010 with about 200 employees, with the remaining positions to be filled through 2011.

Another high-profile project that illuminates how L-A is playing to its new strengths — and is attracting international attention in the process — is Lufthansa Technik’s historic Lockheed Constellation restoration project. Lufthansa’s non-profit foundation recently purchased three rare Lockheed L-1649A “Super Star” aircraft in a private sale in Auburn and is overseeing restoration of one aircraft that will be fully operational and built just as it would have come off the assembly line in the 1950s. Lufthansa Technik decided to undertake the project right in Auburn.

In the late 1950s, the Lockheed Constellation series pioneered long-range air travel, with an unprecedented capability of flying more than 6,100 nautical miles. Lufthansa, one of the most revered and best-run companies in the world, has hired two dozen local technicians whom they have specially trained to work on the two-year project. The work is being completed in a new 30,000 square-foot hangar at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport.

Another internationally renowned company is Kellogg’s Snacks, which recently opened a 60,000 square-foot facility in the new Auburn Industrial Park. Kellogg’s is the latest distribution company to take advantage of L-A’s growing transportation and logistics amenities.

Just as Lewiston-Auburn was built largely as a result of the power of the Androscoggin River as an energy source, L-A is being redefined and recreated in part by the strength of its transportation, distribution, and logistics industry.

The area’s central location is a major selling point, as nearly half the state’s population is located within 30 miles of L-A. Lewiston-Auburn’s strategic location is enhanced by two turnpike exits with direct access to I-95; two railroads, including St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad (operated by Genesee & Wyoming), with international connections to deep sea ports via Canadian National; and a busy and growing airport. The area also has a double-stack rail-to-truck intermodal facility located at a U.S. Customs port of entry. Excluding oil deliveries, if measured by the sheer volume of cargo containers, the Auburn port is Maine’s busiest.

In 2004, the U.S. Department of Commerce approved creation of a General Purpose Foreign Trade Zone in Auburn. The Foreign Trade Zone benefits qualifying companies that conduct international trade by eliminating, reducing, or deferring the payment of tariffs on products or raw materials. It applies to companies within 60 miles or 90 minutes of the FTZ.

Some of the area’s major employers in transportation and logistics include Poland Spring, LePage Bakeries, VIP Parts & Service, the Wal-Mart Distribution Center, Savage Safe Handling (which handles nearly 4,000 railcars and 12,000 truckloads of industrial raw materials per year), Estes Express, which opened a new 15,000-square-foot trucking terminal on River Road in Lewiston in 2007, and Fed-Ex, which recently built a nearly 80,000-square-foot distribution facility in Lewiston.

The new Auburn Industrial Park came to life with its first client, developer Gendron & Gendron, which built a state-of-the-art warehouse for Bisson Transportation and NEPW, formerly LynxUS. Bisson made a major investment in a 100,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility there. Bisson hopes to eventually expand its facility to a 300,000-square-foot distribution center, serving not only the paper industry, but non-perishable food manufacturers and freight forwarders.

Also in Auburn, developer Joseph Casalinova received approval for his new Kittyhawk Business Park not far from Exit 75 of the Maine Turnpike. The park is a 30-acre site off Kittyhawk Drive that will focus in part on attracting distribution and logistics clients.

In Lewiston, phase two of the Gendron Business Park will clear the way for an additional 134 acres of development by Gendron and Gendron. The new subdivision near Exit 80 of the Maine Turnpike is a joint venture between developer Gendron & Gendron and the City of Lewiston, and consists of a giant 65-acre lot to accommodate a large project, such as a distribution center.

Business growth in L-A is about much more than distribution and logistics. Indeed, when one considers what makes a good community livable, the area has had significant development across the board including multi-million dollar library renovations, business start-ups, hospital expansions, road and green space improvements, and new housing stock ranging from elderly housing to high-end condos.

For example, a new $13 million, 100-room Marriott Residence Inn was completed last year in Auburn’s bustling Turner Street and Mount Auburn Avenue area, where a new Famous Footwear and PetCo recently opened.

Each of the area’s four colleges has experienced robust growth as well. L-A College recently completed a new 14,000-square-foot, $2.5 million learning center called LearningWorks. (Another 8,000-square-foot build-out on the second floor is underway.) The facility houses College for ME Androscoggin, an effort to encourage Androscoggin County residents to pursue college degrees and lifelong learning opportunities.

Bates College recently opened a $30 million dining hall focused on eco-friendly efficiency and design, as well as a new dorm and walking path. Kaplan University (formerly Andover College, the freshman among L-A institutions of higher learning), expanded across the street from its first Lisbon Street location to occupy a second campus building. Central Maine Community College completed a new residence hall for more than 150 students. The first on-campus housing project since 1975, the 27,000-square-foot building on CMCC’s campus houses a function room on the fourth floor overlooking Lake Auburn.

Extensive work continues at the Bates Mill Complex, this time on the Canal Street entrance, perhaps the most well-known profile of the sprawling complex whose famous clock tower is a local landmark. The Executive Office Building was torn down to work on a grand entryway with a staircase that will lead to other parts of the mill and will spill out onto the courtyard. The complex now boasts a number of mixed use tenants, including banks, high-end restaurants, a café, and offices.

Quality restaurants continue to open their doors – most recently Marché and City Side Grill – or re-open, as is the case with the much-anticipated rebirth of The Village Inn. Successful restaurateur and entrepreneur Eric Agren recently purchased the property at 40 Lisbon Street in Lewiston for Marché and has creating a mixed-use building consisting of a high-end residence on the second floor as well as his luncheon/creperie restaurant on the first. This will mirror the model he has created with his highly successful Fuel restaurant across the street. That property also houses him and his wife upstairs in a beautifully renovated and spacious loft apartment.

Marché is a boutique style lunch venue with limited dinner service.  The cozy 40-seat luncheon boasts a 30-bottle wine list, beers, and a one-night-a week dinner called “Monday Night Supper” with four courses and a single seating for 20 people.

Speaking of adaptive reuse, local restaurateur Jules Patry, who manages Davinci’s Eatery at the Bates Mill Complex, has purchased a long-dormant building on downtown Lisbon Street which he will also renovate and convert to mixed use. Taking a page from Agren’s recipe book, the top floors of 84 Lisbon Street will be living space, and the bottom floor is intended to be a mix of office and retail space.

An entrepreneur with local roots will open a microbrewery at the Bates Mill Complex in Lewiston, and will have capacity to fill 30 cans a minute. The Baxter Brewing Co., which will be run by 25-year-old Auburn native Luke Livingston and master brewer Michael LaCharite, will sell beer in cans, not bottles. The Baxter brewery will feature a 30-barrel brewhouse and a state-of-the-art canning line.

The expansion of Auburn’s Riverwalk pedestrian path along the Androscoggin River in downtown Auburn is complete. It is a great example of what young urban professionals say they find appealing: a riverfront oasis where they can take a quick stroll and recharge their batteries — smack dab in the middle of an urban core. An ADA- compliant ramp was added, and the path extends under the Longley Bridge connecting the Falls and paths near the Hilton Garden Inn Auburn Riverwatch.

Meanwhile, Museum L-A, which is dedicated to sharing “the story of work and community in Lewiston-Auburn,” is actively involved in a capital campaign that will take the organization to a stratospheric new level. The museum’s board recently approved the purchase of the former Camden Yarns Mill in Lewiston. (The museum is currently housed in the Bates Mill Complex.)

Plans call for the museum to renovate 20,000 square feet of the Camden mill within five years. That would require raising $5- to $6 million of capital and endowment funds. Museum L-A is currently working with DesignLAB Architects of Boston on conceptual plans and design ideas.

Making it easier for young professionals to come and go as they please is critical to attracting them. That’s the reason residents are delighted that the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport is working with some small independent airlines to try to get daily air service, possibly from Auburn to Washington, D.C., for as little as $111.

According to Sixel Consulting Group, the Auburn-Lewiston air passenger market is likely to produce as many as 667 passengers per day each way (though not all would necessarily use the Auburn facility). The airport catchment area is projected to produce about $90 million in annual airline revenue, or $123,300 in revenue per day, with flyers largely destined for East Coast destinations.

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