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March 22, 2010

On track | A Rockland entrepreneur rides the coastal town's coattails with his growing trolley and limo business

Photo/Whit Richardson Jim Gamage Jr. checks out the posh interior of one of his new Escalade limousines
Photo/Courtesy Jim Gamage Jr. One of Jim Gamage's newer coastal trolleys, part of a $500,000 deal to expand his fleet
By Whit Richardson

When Jim Gamage Jr. founded All Aboard Trolley Co. in Rockland six years ago with two small “old-fashioned looking” trolleys, the business’ success was far from certain.

The town’s Main Street at the time had several empty storefronts, there was no renovated Strand Theater, no abundance of art galleries, there were fewer than a dozen small cruise ships docking at its pier every year, and the town had not gained a national reputation as a tourist destination. “Rockland was vibrant and active, but not the way it is today,” Gamage says on a recent morning, sitting in his office on the second floor of the Rockland Post Office.

Today, in the aftermath of a half-a-million-dollar investment, Gamage’s decision to start running trolley tours appears ideally timed.

Gamage grew up in Rockland, where his father worked in a shipyard. He still remembers the locals saying, “Rockland by the smell; Camden by the sea.” “That’s what it was,” he says. “We were the working waterfront.”

But through his local tours, he discovered a lot about his hometown worth sharing.

His sightseeing tours in vintage trolleys include a drive down Main Street and commentary about the history of the Farnsworth Museum, the Strand Theater, the Wyeth Center and a visit to the working waterfront, where a tour guide talks about islands, lobsters, the shipbuilding industry and the local limestone quarries that once filled schooners with barrels of stone for destinations all over the world. He also rents out the trolleys for special occasions, like weddings and proms, and provides excursion tours for the increasing number of cruise ship passengers. “We found out Rockland has a lot to offer,” Gamage says.

The business has taken off over the last couple of years as Rockland’s reputation has soared. Last year, Budget Travel magazine named Rockland the second coolest small town in the United States, while in February, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Rockland one of its 2010 Dozen Distinctive Destinations.

Gamage compares Rockland in 2004 to an airplane taxiing on the tarmac. “Today, we are at full speed, engines whistling and turning as we head down the runway ready to pull up and take flight. I see Rockland lifting the landing gear and becoming airborne in a year or so.”

So, eager to ride the tail wind of this Rockland jetliner, Gamage in January decided to up his investment. In a lightning deal he pulled together in a week and a half, which included closing a commercial loan from Rockland Savings Bank, Gamage spent roughly $500,000 to buy a new fleet of vehicles from a company in Massachusetts — and not just more trolleys.

Gamage is now the proud owner of two larger, more modern trolleys; a minicoach with oak tables; and four, super-stretch white limousines (three Cadillac Escalades and a Hummer). “I used to tell brides that anybody can have a white limo, but not everybody can have a white trolley,” Gamage says with a smile. “I have to change my saying now because I have white limos.”

The investment was a gamble, but Gamage likes to take risks. “I think it’s fun doing what I’m doing; it’s an adrenaline rush,” he says. “When I do something, I tend to do it big. It’s neat not knowing what’s going to happen. It gets your blood flowing. The busier you get, the more exciting it is.”

His business plan laid out how the gamble would pay off. In 2009, his two vintage trolleys generated $120,000 in revenue. This year, he expects his new fleet to bring in as much as $400,000.

Connections work both ways

Gamage, 34, has an easygoing nature and the aura of a salesman. His office is covered in Red Sox memorabilia, from the David Ortiz and Jonathan Papelbon bobbleheads on his desk to the Curt Schilling and bloody sock poster on his wall.

Whether he’s selling his business or Rockland, Gamage gets excited when he talks. He believes optimism is contagious. And while he recognizes the importance of large companies coming in and providing hundreds of jobs, he sees small businesses like his slowly building the foundation of the local economy, brick by brick. He uses his recent investment as an example. He has seven new vehicles that need to be serviced at the local mechanic’s shop, seven more vehicles his local insurance agent gets to insure, seven more vehicles that need drivers, ticket sellers and cleaners. He estimates he’ll need to hire 20 to 25 people this summer.

And he’s counting on more growth, especially with the cruise ship industry. In 2004, when Gamage started his business, Rockland welcomed 11 cruise ships, each carrying between 50 and 100 passengers, according to CruiseMaine, a coalition that promotes the cruise ship industry in Maine. In 2009, Rockland hosted 28 cruise ships, including the first deep water cruise ship to visit somewhere other than Portland or Bar Harbor in 20 years, according to Shari Closter, interim executive director of the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce. The Jewel of the Seas, which carries 2,500 passengers and a crew of 760, is expected back in Rockland in 2010.

Gamage plans to use his two new trolleys, which each carry 50 people, for excursion trips for passengers of the smaller cruise ships that stop at Boothbay Harbor, Rockland, Camden and Belfast. His trolleys will follow the ships, meeting passengers as they come to shore for excursions and sightseeing trips to lobster bakes, lighthouses and places like the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. “I think it will come together nicely,” he says.

Not your father’s trolleys

While Gamage’s new trolleys are great for daytime excursions for tourists, they’re also tricked out to the max to make them attractive to the special occasion crowd. Each trolley has a 42-inch flat screen TV, a bar, a karaoke machine, satellite radio, an electric fireplace, a laser light show synced with the beat of the music, an Xbox and RockBand. Oh, and don’t forget the fog machine. “You can use it during the day when it’s a nice cute, unique original trolley,” Gamage says. “Then, at the flip of a switch, it becomes a party bus.”

He says there’s nothing like them in the state.

Not to be outdone, the limousines sport the same amenities. One Escalade even has a satellite dish on its roof so passengers can watch “crystal clear” DirectTV from anywhere “except inside a tunnel.”

Gamage has put together package deals with his limos: trips to Hollywood Slots, to Disney on Ice in Portland, to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. When the weather’s warmer, he’ll head to Fenway Park, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods. The limos are already reserved for weddings in 2011. And word has spread to the money-is-no-object crowd. The day this reporter was in his office, Gamage received a call from a woman who wanted to rent a 24-passenger stretch limo to pick her up at the Portland airport and drive her to Camden.

Ironically, the limos were not part of Gamage’s original business plan, and aren’t reflected in his $400,000 revenue projection. When he bought the fleet as a package deal in January, his plan was to keep the trolleys and sell the limos. He didn’t think there’d be a market for the limos, but he’s been surprised by the response. “The phone does not stop ringing, so my plan is to hang onto them,” Gamage says.

Gamage will face some challenges, though. Diane Forgy, president of the National Limousine Association and owner of a limo business in Kansas City, says the biggest hurdles to success include the poor economy, high gas prices, high insurance premiums, finding the right employees and competition. The seasonal aspect of the business could affect profitability if the limos, which cost close to $120,000 apiece, sit idle for long periods. “There’s challenges, there always are,” she says. “If there’s no competition, that’s great, but it doesn’t mean it will always be like that.”

Realizing the area’s growth could attract competitors, Gamage recently signed a two-year contract with Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens that states All Aboard Trolley & Limousine Co. (he changed the name in January) is the only company that will deliver cruise ship passengers to the gardens, one of the most visited tourist attractions in the state. “[The contract] gives me a little security blanket,” Gamage says, as he’s driving through Rockland’s industrial park.

He’s on his way to visit his four white super-stretch limos, which are parked in a corner of the recently closed Oak Seafood processing facility’s parking lot — a reminder, says Gamage, that “I need to find a place to operate out of.”

Right now, his fleet of 10 vehicles is spread over four locations. His new trolleys and minicoach are parked at his home in Rockport, the limos are in the industrial park, an old trolley is in the parking lot of a local mechanic, and the second old trolley is in a storage warehouse. “You see why I need one roof?” Gamage asks. “It’s a logistical nightmare.”

In the parking lot, he opens up his Hummer. He tries to get the fog machine running, but the vehicle is still so new, he’s not sure how to get it started. While he’s waiting for it to spew fog, Gamage says his goal is to get the community more “engaged” in his business.

He wants people to pitch him ideas on how the limos can be used, no matter how strange they might seem. “Who’d ever heard about taking a limo to the botanical gardens, but why not? That’s what I say, why not,” Gamage says. “You only go through life once, might as well go through it in style.”

All Aboard Trolley & Limousine Co.
21 Limerock St., Rockland
Founded: 2004
Owner: Jim Gamage Jr.
Employees: Four off-season; 20 during tourist season
2009 revenue: $120,000
Contact: 594-9300
www.aatrolley.com

 

Whit Richardson, a writer based in Friendship, can be reached at editorial@mainebiz.biz.

 

A sideline business puts prisoners to work



All Aboard Trolley & Limousine Co. is Jim Gamage Jr.'s second business in Rockland. Since 2002 he has been managing All 4 U, a staffing agency he founded in 2000.

The business has had its ups (it peaked at 165 employees a few years ago) and downs (it currently employs 40 to 45 people). Sales in 2007-08 were roughly $2.8 million. This year, Gamage says he'll be happy to hit $1.5 million.

He expects business will pick up now that local companies are recovering from the recession. The dynamic will be good for All 4 U, Gamage says. Instead of hiring new full-time employees, some businesses want to take the more cautious route and hire full-time temps first.

He is particularly proud of is his work with a prison relief program, which allows model inmates to work outside the state prison for the last six months of their sentences. Several years ago, he made a pitch to one of his clients, Cedar Works, to use the prisoners as temps. Cautious at first, the company eventually asked for four employees from the prison release program. Then it requested four more, then four more.

The program became so popular, Gamage bought three 15-passenger vans to pick up and drop off the employees every day. It's a service Gamage likes to offer. "It's a win win win - for us, the employer and the employee. They get a chance to get their foot in the door and prove themselves. We'll give you the basketball and the court. You have to play the game."

Gamage has a pay-it-forward attitude about the program. "I haven't always been a perfect person and we can all make a slip up. To give someone a second chance, I think is important. I've had the misfortune to spend some time in jail and it's hard to start over. It's hard to check that box that you're a felon on applications," he says. "I'm not saying I hire every felon that comes in here, but I think it's important to give people a second chance."

Whit Richardson

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