Business that measures down to the microgram plans major expansion
COURTESY OF INVESTCOMM COMMERCIAL GROUP
An architect's rendering of the new facility that LAW Calibration LLC plans to build and move into next year at 71 Industrial Park Drive in Saco.
SACO — Louis Waterhouse gets so much business that he’s pretty much been in expansion mode ever since he started his company, LAW Calibration LLC, in 2010.
Now Waterhouse is planning the next phase of expansion.
LAW Calibration will move from its current 2,400-square-foot laboratory at 2 Main St. in Biddeford, on the Pepperell Mill campus. It plans to move into a new 25,000-square-foot building, plus an additional 10,000-square-foot building behind it, on a 6.4-acre industrial lot at 71 Industrial Park Drive in Saco.
In a deal that closed Oct. 18, LAW Calibration paid $60,000 for the land. Kirk Butterfield of Investcomm Commercial Group represented Waterhouse and Greg Hastings of NAI The Dunham Group represented sellers Dan and Kathleen Hutchens.
He plans to invest another $1.4 million on the new construction.
'When close isn't good enough'
Waterhouse calls himself a “metrologist.” And that does indeed read metrologist, not "meteorologist." This is an unusual field that involves tool and instrument calibration. Waterhouse’s extensive services include things like meters, testers, gauges and scopes; power supplies; electrical and electronic components; instruments that measure space, time, force, pH and more.
On his website, his motto is, “When close isn't good enough.”
“We do everything from finite electronic work all the way to large construction equipment,” said Waterhouse. “Like the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge being constructed in Portsmouth: Cianbro and Casco Bay Steel both have contracts on that, and they’re both customers of ours. So every quantitative measurement used to construct that bridge has been done by equipment that came through this lab.”
Waterhouse came to the field by happenstance.
He grew up in Saco and graduated from Thornton Academy. He wasn’t interested in college and instead joined the U.S. Air Force, where he worked in a precision measurement equipment laboratory.
“I said, ‘That’s the job for me.’ I love tearing things apart, learning how they work and putting them back together again,” he said.
After the Air Force, he set up shop in a small basement room. His first job involved calibrating automotive tools.
“I remember the first 600-foot-pound torque wrench,” he said. “I had to open the door because the wrench was too long to fit in the room.”
Then the Manufacturers Association of Maine connected him with other customers and he moved into 600 square feet at Pepperell Mill in Biddeford. Two years later, he moved to his current location.
He’s still growing.
Searching for the right property
Kirk Butterfield of Investcomm showed Waterhouse buildings for lease and purchase. None was suitable. So he decided to build his own and get what he wanted. His search for land led him to Industrial Park Drive in Saco.
With 35,000 square feet of space planned for construction, there will be room for a 6,000-square-foot lab and a technical training center. Waterhouse hopes to build on an existing apprenticeship program with Thornton Academy. He’ll also offer technician training for adults.
“Larger companies have their own calibration labs, but nowhere to train people,” he said. “We see a pretty big market for that.”
For now, he’ll lease remaining space to other local small businesses.
“It will be terrific to have additional, high-quality inventory in this tight industrial market, particularly in the hard-to-find, 2,500-to-5,000-square-foot configurations,” Butterfield noted.
Waterhouse expects to invest $1.4 million in construction — a specialized endeavor, in this case. Planning to measure down to the microgram — one millionth of the weight of a paperclip — measures include building a lab within the lab, with a floating concrete floor that eliminates external vibration, and independent atmospheric controls. Steel, for example, is sensitive to temperature changes caused by body heat from one too many persons in the room.
Some parts of the plan are still in review by the city of Saco, but city representatives “have been extremely positive,” said Butterfield. “The city appears to be in strong support of this project as it fills a much needed hole in the ‘smaller industrial spaces’ market.”
Waterhouse expects to be in the space by June 1, 2017.
“It will be a heck of a project when it’s finished,” he said.
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