Photo / Courtesy Northland Enterprises
This "before" view shows the development site where Northland Enterprises built a new headquarters for Pack Edge.
Updated: December 16, 2024
Packaging manufacturer leases build-to-suit facility in Saco multi-phase development
Photo / Courtesy Northland Enterprises
The new Pack Edge headquarters, at 955 Portland Road in Saco, consolidates the company’s three facilities in Portland, South Portland and Cumberland. The site also has 75,000 square feet of development area behind Pack Edge and a retail pad along the road.
Pack Edge Inc., an employee-owned company that provides packaging solutions to a wide range of industries throughout the U.S., recently cut the ribbon on its new build-to-suit headquarters at 955 Portland Road in Saco.
The project is the first phase of a multi-phase development at the address by Northland Enterprises, a Portland-based commercial developer.
“The new Pack Edge facility will provide a healthy and vibrant work environment for the company’s employee owners and will help grow their business and assist in recruitment,” said Josh Benthien, Northland’s CEO. “The Pack Edge team have been incredible partners throughout the site selection and building development process.”
Pack Edge has entered into a long-term lease for the building from Northland.
Northland has been developing and managing commercial real estate since 2001. Specializing in developing buildings for specific tenants’ needs, it has developed and owns over 300,000 square feet of commercial properties in Maine. Northland’s projects include the Harvey Performance Co. facility in Gorham and the Clark Insurance Co., headquarters and Diversified Partners medical facility in Portland.
Consolidation
Pack Edge was founded in 1998 by Jim Freeman, primarily to serve the seafood industry with temperature-sensitive packaging. Over the years, the company has expanded into packaging for meat, cheese, chocolate, biomedical and pharmaceutical companies.
In 2009, the company began manufacturing its own line of custom gel packs and has become the largest producer in New England, according to a news release. In 2019 the company was sold to its employees. Freeman remains president of the company. An additional product line is its curbside recyclable packaging, according to its website.
Pack Edge was formerly headquartered and had a main distribution operation at 340 Presumpscot St. in Portland. The company also occupied a leased warehouse on Rumery Road in South Portland and had a production and warehouse in Cumberland, which it sold in 2022.
“They are now in the process of consolidating all operations into the Saco location,” said Benthien.
Northland bought Pack Edge’s facility at 340 Presumpscot St. in Portland in 2022 and provided a short-term leaseback to Pack Edge to provide flexibility during the development process of the Saco facility.
Development site
The 955 Portland Road development site is 23 acres and can accommodate additional build-to-suit opportunities, according to Northland. The property is the former home of the Cascade Golf Driving Range.
The Pack Edge headquarters is the first project there. The first phase also included creating a connection to a new signalized intersection at Flag Pond Road and installing connections to infrastructure for future phases.
Potential uses for the remaining buildable lots on the site include warehouse and manufacturing, office, multi-family or retail, Northland said.
The location allows for a lighted primary entrance, numerous secondary access points and sufficient land for parking and loading areas, located less than five miles from I-95 on/off ramps.
Benthien said he expects the development site could eventually host four or five buildings, depending on the sizes of subsequent phases.
“We have about 16 acres of total developable land at this site,” he said.
In addition to a front retail pad, the vision is to build one or two more industrial, warehouse or manufacturing facilities to the rear of Pack Edge. Once an adjacent road called Waterfall Drive is completed and the city takes ownership, there could be another facility on the back side of the property, he added.
TC Haffenreffer at the Dunham Group as the site’s leasing agent.
“The zoning for this section of Portland Road is very friendly for a host of retail and commercial uses, which gives us high confidence that we’re going to attract some very interesting and dynamic tenants for the project,” Benthien said.
Pack Edge custom build
For the Pack Edge plant, Northland and Pack Edge worked collaboratively with Sanford design-build contractor Patco Construction to conceive of a building layout designed for efficiency and to allow for growth and potential expansion during the lease term. Patco’s Dennis Waters served as project manager.
“He was great to work with,” Benthien said of Waters.
Once the building layout and size were determined, the team examined multiple locations before deciding on the 955 Portland Road site.
The 49,318-square-foot single-story warehouse/distribution facility was designed to serve as Pack Edge’s headquarters and to house the manufacturing process for the company’s gel freezer packaging, while also providing on-site storage and distribution capability for its other traditional packaging supplies.
The new building combines functions that had previously been housed in three separate facilities in Portland, South Portland and Cumberland.
The layout includes a 4,213-square-foot office for executive and back-office functions, 6,612-square-foot high-bay freezer facility, a 38,493-square-foot assembly and warehouse space, a gel-pack manufacturing process area, 30-foot-high warehouse racking and expansion potential.
“The biggest challenge was the design and construction of the 6,600-square-foot freezer facility, which is sized to provide ample sales growth,” said Benthien. “It is a feature that must operate flawlessly and without interruption, so we did a lot to proactively prevent known failure points for freezer facilities of this size and capacity.”
The development cost was $9.3 million. Construction started in September 2023 and was completed 14 months later.
Atlantic Resource Consultants in Freeport was the civil engineer. The lender was Bangor Savings Bank.
The ability to combine all of Pack Edge’s operations under one roof is expected to reduce lease and facility operating costs, improve the working environment and eliminate the transportation and fuel expenses related to moving inventory between multiple buildings, Northland said.
“Together, we have designed a facility that allows us to consolidate from three warehouses into one purpose-built headquarters that will allow us to grow over the next two decades,” said Freeman.
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