Free to a good boss | Camden offers tannery site to lure investment and jobs
Photo/Courtesy Martin Cates
Martin Cates, chair fo the Camden Community and Economic Development Advisory Committee, hopes a land-for-jobs proposal will revive the former Apollo tannery site and provide dozens of good jobs
Former Apollo tannery location
On a tree-lined, residential stretch of Washington Street in Camden sits an empty, fenced-in lot. Once home to a 19th-century, three-story mill, the site has sat vacant since 2005, when voters approved razing the town-owned building, most recently known as the Apollo tannery, to pave the way for something new. Now, after five years and nearly $1 million in demolition and remediation investments, the town is ready to aggressively market the property — and for the right business, it could be free.
Since 2008, the town, its economic advisory committee and the Knox/Waldo Regional Economic Development Council have been developing this “Land for Jobs” proposal in an effort to bring year-round jobs to the Midcoast community. It works like this: A business that meets certain requirements and creates at least 24 good-paying jobs would be rebated the entire purchase price of the 3.5 acre lot, currently valued at $450,000.
“We’re hoping this land for jobs [initiative] will bring somebody to the table,” says Martin Cates, chair of the Community and Economic Development Advisory Committee and a member of the Apollo tannery redevelopment work group, which pitched the idea in its February 2008 report to the Camden Select Board.
It’s not a totally new idea — the nearby communities of Bucksport and Belfast offer free or cheap spots to companies in their business parks, according to Alan Hinsey, interim director of KWREDC. But as far as he’s heard, no other community has tied such an offer to job creation.
But finding a way to attract new jobs to Camden has been a growing concern since credit card giant MBNA announced its departure in 2003, taking 500 jobs with it. That, coupled with the recent economic slump that has forced businesses to contract or close altogether, has the town realizing it must do more to promote itself to potential businesses.
“We’ve recognized and have a renewed interest in a more aggressive approach to economic development and downtown development since [MBNA left],” says Town Manager Roberta Smith. “We know we have to be competitive to market it, and we’re doing something a little different to attract buyers and developers to the site.”
The town has identified certain industries that would fit within the residential location of the site, including biotechnology, information technology, financial services and health care, and a building there could support up to 300 jobs, says Hinsey. A qualified buyer who creates at least 24 jobs that pay 125% of the Knox County median wage, or approximately $40,000, within five years of setting up shop will get the entire price of the parcel rebated to them. The price of the property will be based on the appraised value and other market variables, and a 25-foot strip along the river will remain town-owned for potential development as a multi-use pathway. Any business interested in buying must get Camden voters’ approval before the deal can go through.
The town acquired the tannery in 2003 through a tax lien foreclosure, and in 2005 demolished the dilapidated, wood-frame building and cleaned up the site. In 2008, town voters approved the land-for-jobs initiative, but the project sat on the back burner once the economy soured, KWREDC lost its director and the town turned its attention to marketing the Knox Mill property. With that property under new, though troubled, ownership, and with Hinsey leading KWREDC, Camden is pinning its hopes for an economic revival on that grassy lot on Washington Street.
With a new appraisal due on the property any day now, the town is revamping its marketing efforts, hoping to catch the eye of a Maine or New England company looking for “good workers and cheap space” in a historic, picturesque coastal community, says Hinsey, who is also the producer of the Mainebiz Sunday television show. “We’re going to market it more heavily, get the word out and see how it resonates.”
The property’s manufacturing history goes back to 1855 with the construction of the Gould Plug and Wedge Mill. In 1887, it became the Camden Woolen Co. and employed 125 people. In 1953, the Camden Tannery Corp. took over. In 1997, it was leased to Apollo Tanning and operated for a short two years before the company applied for bankruptcy in 2000.
Though the property has been on the market since its remediation, interest has been scant, says Cates. “It’s a victim of the economy. We’re relooking at the site and the market changes — it’s a moving target, but we’re hoping to offer something more attractive.”
Cates says the economic advisory committee and KWREDC are in the midst of adapting the marketing plan and that there are “two or three things on the table” to help sweeten the deal for a potential business, but he couldn’t say what they are. “We’re not sitting still.”
That kind of flexibility could be key in attracting the right business, says Dan Bookham, executive director of the Camden Rockport Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce. The changes that have happened in the two years since the plan was first approved — the property’s likely lower valuation and the abundance of cheap commercial space — could make the program’s requirements, including the salary stipulations, a tougher sell, he says. “It’s a great program, but the value of the property has to be sufficient to make the return worthwhile. We have to be adjusting it to make sure it’s still suitably attractive.”
The stakes are high for Camden. In addition to a $200,000 brownfields grant, the town took out an $836,000, 20-year bond for environmental remediation of the former tannery, which is being paid by the town’s general fund. A payment of $60,783 is due each August until 2025, and a new business on the site would mean needed revenues. “We’d like to pass over to a tax revenue generation proposition and ease the burden on the taxpayers,” says Cates.
Other development challenges
In June 2008, neighboring Rockland welcomed Boston Financial Data Services into its former MBNA building with plans to create up to 250 jobs within two years. That same year, athenahealth moved into the former MBNA building in Belfast with the promise of at least 200 jobs.
But Camden was not so lucky. Its Knox Mill properties, former MBNA offices, are currently in receivership by a Baltimore firm, after owner Maine Investment Properties failed to pay nearly $20 million in mortgage bills. Though initially targeted for a $27 million renovation of condos, retail and office space, a good deal of the 200,000-square-foot space is still vacant, says town manager Smith.
Not only does Camden compete with its neighbors for new businesses, but for existing ones as well. “We have realized that businesses that have started in Camden have for one reason or another left to go to Rockland or Belfast, mostly Rockland,” says Peter Gross, a member of the Community and Economic Development Advisory Committee. “As a group, we’re trying to figure out the reasons why.”
Gross says a major reason is that Camden lacks the large office spaces needed by growing companies. But others say the town isn’t doing enough to present itself as open for business. Last year, residents put the kibosh on a proposed Dunkin’ Donuts in a vacant storefront downtown, afraid the coffee chain would hurt the town’s quaint village charm. “We need to be more like our neighbors, aggressively compete and become more business friendly,” says Hinsey. “We’re trying to get the message out, in this post-Dunkin’ Donuts moratorium, that this is where businesses want to be, and we’re ready to invite you in.”
Besides the land-for-jobs initiative, Camden had taken another major step to show its desire for development. Voters this month approved two tax-increment financing districts in the downtown and along Route 1, the town’s first TIFs. The 20-year TIFs will channel tax money from businesses in those areas to the town for capital improvements in the downtown area, including sidewalk and utility upgrades, says Gross, who serves as acting chair of the advisory committee’s TIF work group. While businesses that locate in the districts won’t get tax breaks, the town is hoping that investing in its downtown will be enough to attract new employers and help strengthen business for those already there.
And stronger businesses mean more year-round jobs that will keep Camden from becoming solely a seasonal tourist community. “We seem to have a lot more houses in our neighborhoods black during the winter,” says Gross, a 31-year Camden resident and owner of Peter T. Gross Architects in Camden.
“Camden has a lot of features: housing, work force, a lot of trained people left behind when MBNA left,” says Smith. “It is and can continue to be a vibrant, year-round community, and not one with boarded-up sidewalks, which is the concern.”
Mindy Favreau, Mainebiz e-news editor, can be reached at mfavreau@mainebiz.biz.
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