The Buzz this week is full of optimism and burritos.

When they opened 18 months ago on Lisbon Street, Ben’s Burritos founders Tricia Tomlinson and Ben Scott created a “Pay It Forward” wall where customers could anonymously buy other people burritos. Someone walking through the door who could not afford a meal could snag one of the paper burritos on the board, bring it to the front and lunch was served.

Good deed done, someone in need fed, win-win.

“It’s leaving it up to the community,” Tomlinson said at the time. “I think people are really willing to show up for something positive and giving and contributing in a way that’s not too showy.”

She got the idea from a New Jersey restaurant that uses the concept to run its entire business.

So how many burritos have customers bought and gifted in 18 months?

Try 350, give or take.

Since the restaurant opened, customers have spent about $2,800 toward the “Pay It Forward” wall, Tomlinson said Tuesday. Others have hung their buy-10-get-one-free punch cards on the wall to offer up their free 11th burrito.

“I think it’s great,” she said. “I think that we are lucky to be in a community where we have a give and take for people who are food insecure. I don’t really know of any other business right now doing that, so I feel good to be setting a pace for possible other businesses to join in looking out for their common woman and common man.”

The board is hung in the restaurant so it’s visible through the window on Lisbon Street. She notices people routinely slowing on the sidewalk to peek in.

“We know a lot of our Pay It Forward people,” Tomlinson said. “We still get new faces in, and then what’s really nice is people that have used Pay It Forward have actually come back and bought for other people.”

In addition to lunch, Ben’s Burritos is open for dinner Thursday and Friday nights and serves burritos, tacos, quesadillas, soups and sides. The restaurant employs four people, including Tomlinson.

She said it has been a good first year.

“We’ve seen a lot of community support,” she said. 

GROWING

Liz Young says Lewiston was a great place to test Hero’s Subs’ business model when it opened just over a year ago at 884 Lisbon St. Now, it’s ready to expand.

She and a business partner are bringing a second location to one of four subdivided spaces in the former Buck’s Naked BBQ in Portland.

“This is our first business, we thought it would be good to get our feet wet here,”  Young said. “We’re going to be right down in the Old Port. We’re going to actually do the late night crowd as well. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Hero’s Subs sells subs, sandwiches, salads and wraps as well as meat and cheese by the pound. Young said its gluten-free offerings have been a draw.

Four people work at the Lewiston location and eight will work in Portland. She’s tentatively shooting for an Aug. 1 opening.

GOING

At Monday night’s City Council meeting, Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque said the city is planning a trade trip to China, at the invitation of a Chinese business consortium, to discuss more investment opportunities in Auburn.

He told councilors more information would be forthcoming once the trip is finalized, and that Auburn can be a leader in attracting outside investment.

So, more to come. 

BUILDING

The city of Auburn’s June building permits came out Tuesday with quite a few projects started last month.

Owners of Riverside Hotel on Washington Street are building eight units in a stand-alone expansion, according to Eric Cousens, Auburn’s deputy director of economic and community development. That project, by owners Freeway Investments, is estimated at $122,000. 

Other commercial permits:

• Auburn Property LLC, for a $400,000 project involving two new greenhouses and one “head house” at 51 Mystique Way, for an indoor marijuana growing and production facility. Cousens said the LLC is a partnership of several business owners in the Portland area.

“Outside of the dispensaries, that’s probably the biggest individual investment that we’ve seen” in that industry, he said. “As far as I know, they don’t own any other properties in Auburn, but they own a lot of commercial property in the Portland market.”

• Watt Properties LLC, for $420,500 in work at 187 Washington St. South.

Cousens said Connectivity Point Design and Installation there is converting some of its space.

“They have been busting at the seams,” he said. “They bought a building on Washington Street North to serve as their warehouse space, and I think they’re converting some of their former warehouse space to offices.”

• Futureguard Holdings LLC for a $1 million project building a 12,942-square-foot addition at 101 Merrow Road.

“Their goal is to make their production more efficient,” Cousens said.

LOANING

As recently as three years ago, Community Concepts Finance Corp. annually lent $1 million to businesses in western Maine and Cumberland County, according to Zachary W. Maher, vice president of lending.

This spring, it did more than that in just two months — and it’s on track to loan more than $3 million this year.

The spike can be traced in part to additional staff and efficiencies that trimmed loan processing and closing times, he said.

Its loans can be as much as $150,000; the average is $20,000. Maher said clients are also provided free business coaching that is funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

“In addition to just operating faster and more efficient, we focused more on telling the story of our clients, marketing their success to boost their business as well as our word-of-mouth referrals,” he said.

Among the businesses CCFC worked with this spring: A new brewery coming to Oxford, an Auburn fitness trainer, a laundromat in Lewiston, an industrial fabrication shop in Wilton and an interior design business relocating to Bridgton from Michigan.

Staff writer Andrew Rice contributed to this Buzz.

Quick hits about business comings, goings and happenings. Have a Buzzable tip? Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at 689-2844 or kskelton@sunjournal.com.

Owner Tricia Tomlinson holds an “I Buy” card from the “Pay It Forward” wall at the entrance of Ben’s Burritos in Lewiston. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

Liz Young, center, is flanked by two of her employees, Wesley Weddington, left and Gage Williams, right, at Hero’s Subs on Lisbon Street in Lewiston on Tuesday afternoon. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

A sign for two free burritos is posted on Ben’s Burritos’ “Pay It Forward” wall on Lisbon Street in Lewiston on Tuesday morning. Since opening 18 months ago, customers have bought about 350 burritos for the board to feed others. (Kathryn Skelton/Sun Journal)