Healthy revival | Longtime Lewiston medical business sees opportunity in new site
Health care is often touted as Maine’s most vibrant economic sector, supplying a projected two-thirds of new jobs through 2018, according to a state Department of Labor analysis.
At Bedard Health Care Group, health care has been the family business since 1898. Its recent decision to consolidate its operations, which include a retail pharmacy and medical supply center, in a new multi-million-dollar medical support campus in Auburn is expected to position it for growth well into the future.
“Mike and I purchased Bedard Pharmacy from his father in 1997,” Annette Nadeau, co-owner and wife of President Michael Nadeau, writes in an e-mail. “In 2001, we opened Bedard Medical and in 2002, Bedard Long Term Care. In the last few years, our children have graduated from college and have taken an interest in growing the business more … Our physical locations could no longer meet the needs of the company.”
The Nadeaus broke ground last month on the company’s $4 million headquarters, beginning with a medical supply center and small retail pharmacy, the first phase of a multi-phase build out that includes a showroom and warehouse on the nearly four-acre lot at the intersection of Fairview and Minot avenues. Formerly occupied by Gooseberry Barn, a gift store and landscape business that closed in 2004, the city took ownership of the property in 2007 and sold it to the Nadeaus for $468,000 this summer.
“We’re very excited by this project,” says Paul Badeau, marketing director for the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council. “Psychologically, this is such a high-visibility site, people drive by and see some dirt flying on a construction project in late fall … it conveys a great sense that all is not lost, there are still development projects in the hopper here.”
The deal was enhanced by a six-year tax increment financing arrangement from the city that will return roughly $200,000 of the projected $505,000 in property taxes paid by the Nadeaus through 2017. The total value of the project, once the build-out is complete, is $8 million. The project also received a $1.7 million loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
“The tax incentives helped us to complete our project, which, in turn, gives Auburn tax revenue on what was empty land and also creates more jobs in the community,” writes Nadeau. Consolidating operations will allow Bedard to be more efficient and the opportunity to expand into other areas of health care, such as specialized equipment to allow people to stay in their homes. Nadeau says part of the showroom plan is to set up model rooms in a typical home to demonstrate the equipment. Bedard Medical has recently expanded into the rehab wheelchair market and intends to grow its line of bariatric equipment for people dealing with obesity.
The retail medical supply store on Lisbon Street in Lewiston will move to the Auburn campus when the project is complete, expected sometime in June; a pharmacy on College Street will remain open. Nadeau expects 10 new employees will join the company’s existing 48 employees next year.
“They’re very savvy business people,” says Badeau. “How many small, independent pharmacies are left, never mind expanding? They’re extraordinary.”
Carol Coultas, Mainebiz editor, can be reached at ccoultas@mainebiz.biz.
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