No good deed goes unpunished
Mainebiz was recently in the Boothbay area for the third of its six 2017 “On the Road” events.
As many of our readers know, Mainebiz visits six places a year as part of our “On the Road” series. Each stop includes networking but also a small roundtable discussion with area business leaders. These discussions are invaluable, helping us better understand the challenges faced in various areas. Last year, the events were held from Kittery to Fort Kent. In three years, I've sat in on 20 of the sessions — I've learned from each one.
No issue comes up like the challenge of finding workers. This year, with low unemployment and restrictions on J-2 work permits, the labor shortage seems particularly acute. In Boothbay Harbor but also the entire peninsula, labor is always difficult to find, simply because workers end up having to drive a great distance to get there and affordable housing is in relatively short supply.
One of Lewiston's best known natives, Paul Coulombe, who until 2012 was a business owner there, was part of a provocative roundtable discussion at the Newagen Seaside Inn. Coulombe, by his count, has invested $150 million of his own money in two golf resorts, five B&Bs, a lighthouse and other real estate. He made a substantial investment in his own home, in nearby Southport.
Coulombe sold his Pinnacle Vodka and Calico Jack brands to Beam Inc. for $605 million in 2012 and has not been shy about what the area needs: investment. Yet, by his own admission, he has also ruffled a lot of feathers. Reading news accounts about him and just hearing the general buzz, I get that his investment and even his mere presence has not always been welcomed, particularly in the quietly understated Southport area.
I have family on eastern Long Island, in what's now known as the Hamptons, and the running conversation is about real estate — who is buying what, who is building what, who is tearing down what. As moguls from Wall Street and Hollywood direct more and more of their money there, the cries get more incredulous: “He spent what on that monstrosity?” The Real Deal reports that a property in Southampton went on the market for $147 million. A house acquired for $175,000 in 1984 recently sold for $31 million. It's cocktail conversation, but it's also the conversation at the 7-Eleven, where many of the day laborers linger waiting for work.
Nobody wants that for Maine. But, having heard the laments in many a small or seemingly forgotten hamlet, the pleas for some kind of investment to jumpstart a local economy, it seems to me Coulombe's investment would be welcomed in many, many places. Sure, he has a brash persona. You're never going to get exactly what you want. Progress may come with some added traffic, or a few more people asking you for directions. As Maine's population ages, the state is in desperate need of investment that goes beyond one person's contribution.
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