Loring's Cold War-era Arch Hangar may get $2M upgrade
PHOTO / JIM NEUGER
The Loring Commerce Centre includes this arch hangar.
With a prospective aerospace tenant in place at the Loring Commerce Centre’s Arch Hangar, the massive facility is in line for a proposed $2 million in congressionally directed spending for renovations.
The $2 million would support infrastructure and technological upgrades to the hangar, with the goal of revitalizing operations for large aircraft maintenance repair, air cargo operations and aircraft testing.
When completed in 1949, the 126,000-square-foot hangar was the largest arch roof structure in the country, capable of servicing two B-36 bombers simultaneously.
“This funding would support the necessary upgrades needed to restart operations and attract new business in the aviation and aerospace sectors,” said U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who advocated for the proposed funds are in the Fiscal Year 2025 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill approved by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday.
The bill now awaits consideration by the full Senate and House.
“From expanding aviation and aerospace services to increasing job opportunities, this investment into the Arch Hangar at the former Loring Air Force Base would have a positive impact on the surrounding communities for years to come,” said Collins.
The money would support efforts to revitalize the former Loring Air Force Base, said Jonathan Judkins, president and CEO of the Loring Development Authority.
In 2021, a task force appointed by the governor completed a plan that identified aviation and aerospace as long-term components for the economic recovery and sustainability of the former Loring Air Force Base.
Late last year, HyperSpace Propulsion Inc., a Portland-based aerospace startup, signed a letter of intent for a contract with Green 4 Maine LLC, a development company at Loring, to establish a manufacturing, operations and space flight center at the Loring Arch Hangar by late 2024.
Limestone's Loring Commerce Centre, with over 3,800 acres of developed area, is Maine's largest industrial park.
The center was repurposed from the former Loring Air Force Base, which closed in 1994.
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