Gardiner, about six miles down the Kennebec River from Augusta, is courting businesses like Craft Beer Cellar to boost economic growth. Closer to the state capital, the smaller Hallowell, once known for its granite quarries and antique shops, has big plans of its own.
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John Callinan left retirement to start a business and a new life in Gardiner. After a career in health care administration and then a few years of fly fishing and other hobbies, he decided to try his hand in the fast-growing craft-beer sector.
The Massachusetts native signed on with the Craft Beer Cellar retail franchise and eyed several possible locations for his shop but “kept coming back to Gardiner,” he says, because of its historic charm. It helped that he received $45,000 in financial incentives to defray the cost of renovating an old bakery. Callinan's shop, which opened in November 2015, stocks hundreds of beers from Allagash Brewing Co. stouts to fruity lambics from Belgium and hosts regular tastings.
“Maine is really becoming a destination for beer geeks,” Callinan says, “and we are getting recognized as having the same brands and quality as anything in Portland.”
Gardiner, about six miles down the Kennebec River from Augusta, is courting businesses like Craft Beer Cellar to boost economic growth. Closer to the state capital, the smaller Hallowell, once known for its granite quarries and antique shops, has big plans of its own. Both have their work cut out for them after Gardiner saw its population drop from 6,685 in 1970 to 5,675 in 2014, and Hallowell from 2,814 to 2,329 over the same period.
“The census projects that our population numbers will continue to decline. I want to turn that around,” says Patrick Wright, executive director of Gardiner Main Street, one of 2,000 Main Street community revitalization groups nationwide and 10 in Maine. “That's an ambitious goal and some might say we're crazy, but I think we can accomplish that by focusing on community development and quality of life.”
Wright, also a consultant to the city on economic and community development, says he took the job with Gardiner Main Street more than five years ago because he “saw a great opportunity for growth.”
“I saw a ton of potential and a beautiful downtown, in a community starting to turn a corner,” he adds.
In 2014 the city launched an ambitious incentive program with a $125,000 pledge from The Bank of Maine, which was later acquired by Camden National Bank. The Gardiner Growth Initiative, as the program is formally known, is run by Gardiner Main Street and provides up to $50,000 in forgivable loans to businesses that stay downtown for at least five years and up to $10,000 in grants from the Gardiner Board of Trade to cover costs not eligible for loan funding. Today, $39,400 remains available in forgivable loans, Wright says.
Though start-ups may apply, the preference has been for existing businesses with a successful track record. Besides the Craft Beer Cellar, the program has lured Frosty's Donuts, which is based in Brunswick, and Emery's Meat & Produce of Hartland. Wright stressed that while Gardiner prizes entrepreneurship and the energy around starting a business from scratch, getting more stable, well-capitalized businesses “is really key to helping the momentum.” That momentum extends to the Libby Hill Business Park, where Wright has seen a “real uptick in interest recently.”
A total of $3.7 million in economic development grants has poured into Gardiner since 2011. Of that amount, $2.07 million in federally funded Community Development Block Grants have gone to new arrivals, including Sebago Lake Distillery LLC, Central Maine Meats and Lost Orchard Brewing Co. LLC, adding to Gardiner's status as a food and drink production hub. That's not by accident. The sector was among 10 that were strategically targeted by the Growth Initiative. Medical services is another, with redevelopment of an old industrial site expected this year for a planned MaineGeneral Health medical arts facility.
Gardiner's work is far from over. Next up are the renovation of five downtown buildings donated by Camden National Bank and $4.3 million in refurbishments at the Johnson Hall Center for Performing Arts.
A growing dining and drinking scene
Back upriver in Hallowell, City Manager Nate Rudy also has a lot on his plate. Before taking the job last June he led an arts-focused community development non-profit group in Waterville and was Gardiner's director of community and economic development for three and a half years before that.
Rudy notes that Hallowell has an “organic” approach to historic preservation, going back several decades when urban renewal and a highway construction plan threatened to raze the entire downtown. The townsfolk didn't let that happen, leading to the creation of the Hallowell Historic District in 1970.
Today, he says Hallowell continues to value preservation as other towns catch up.
“A lot of the communities around us, Gardiner in particular, are very focused on their growth and development goals and have used the Main Street program to a very good effect,” he says. “We're starting to feel competition from Gardiner and a little bit from Augusta.”
Among Hallowell's main selling points is its growing dining and drinking scene, though parking can be a problem. New venues are opening up all the time, like Buddy's Diner across from City Hall last summer. “There's a lot more to being a business owner than anticipated,” admits Lawrence “Buddy” Iaciofano, a former sous-chef at The Liberal Cup Public House & Brewery nearby. “But there is a lot of camaraderie among small business owners.”
In 2018, the entire half-mile length of Water Street will be dug up and rebuilt in a $5.4 million revamp — of which $585,000 will come from the city — that will see pavements and sidewalks replaced along with the drainage system. It won't be a complete makeover but “it's going to really change, in a sudden and palpable way, the feel of the downtown,” Rudy says. “The community has gone to great lengths to make sure that the change will be minimal, but it will still be felt.”
At the other end of the spectrum is the planned redevelopment of the 54-acre Stevens Commons campus that will see the former Industrial School for Girls converted into a mixed-use property with restaurants, offices, shops and affordable senior housing.
Developer Matt Morrill, owner and president of Mastaway Development LLC and owner of Grand View Log & Timber Frames Co. in Winthrop, says he's in talks with three other private developers and insists he won't be dissuaded by a “very small minority of detractors” raising questions about the use of public money for the project, which will be the biggest he has ever worked on and “one of the most exciting.”
Chris Vallee, a Hallowell real estate agent who opened the Quarry Tap Room along the river two years ago, says Stevens Commons will be “nothing but positive for the city.” As the new president of the Hallowell Area Board of Trade, he aims to improve connections this year between Hallowell, Gardiner and Augusta via a bike-share program and water taxi. “We're all connected by road and rail trail, so this could benefit all of us,” he says.
Tourism is another area with huge potential for the region, and Gardiner architect-turned-innkeeper Shawn Dolley is getting ready. Dolley, who runs The Stone Turret bed and breakfast in a 1905 Christian Science Church, says he's looking to add three rooms for a total of eight in coming years and possibly more common areas, a gym and a rooftop deck with a hot tub. “Now 85% of my market is visiting family,” he says, “but the big push will be to try to open up other markets to the tourism Gardiner has to offer.” That includes festivals, kayaking and architectural tours.
