Prescription for growth | Biddeford looks to a proposed pharmacy school to revitalize its downtown, but must compete with other towns for the tantalizing but costly project

They seem to come and go like tides, new visions for downtown Biddeford's former textile mills ultimately ebbing on a wave of disinterest and economic reality. Condos? Much discussed, but hasn't happened. Artist studios? Hasn't really caught on, either. Office space for doctors and other professionals? Again no, despite local hopes.

Yet city officials and some local developers say they are planning to aggressively go after the most recent vision for filling the textile void: A proposed University of New England pharmacy school that supporters say would turn the city's massive mill complex ˆ— along with the entire downtown ˆ— into a bustling research and education hub. UNE says it needs space for a graduate school it has long hoped to launch, and space is one thing downtown Biddeford most assuredly has.

If built, the school would have 500 students studying, researching and even developing new drugs, while living in a network of nearby apartments. Advocates of placing the school in central Biddeford ˆ— just 4.5 miles from the main UNE campus ˆ— say the proximity to UNE's existing medical and marine science schools could make the city a hub for pharmaceutical and medical research. They envision Boston-area researchers traveling north on Amtrak to visit the school and biomedical research firms setting up in adjacent mills. "You'd have spin offs," says Ed Legg, UNE's vice president for university relations. "You'd bring in all kinds of R&D companies."

But the placement of the school in downtown Biddeford is no sure thing. UNE says it cannot alone afford the school's start-up costs ˆ— estimated at nearly $30 million over its first six years ˆ— and has decided it will place the campus in the Maine city or town that offers rent-free facilities, a move the school hopes will defray $10 million to $15 million in expenses. And it was Camden ˆ— not Biddeford ˆ— that was first out of the gate with a proposal.

A group of midcoast investors, looking to fill a void left by the departure of MBNA and diversify a tourism-dependent local economy, are pledging to make $2.5 million in upgrades to the Knox Mill complex and have offered UNE a 10-year, rent-free stay ˆ— a combined package worth an estimated $10 million. Legg says two other communities, including one in York County, also have contacted UNE about hosting the school; he declines to identify them, saying they aren't ready to publicize their efforts.

In Biddeford, however, officials aren't hiding their desire to attract the school and are hurrying to assemble an offer, anxious not to let pass what some see as a once-in-a-blue-moon prospect. "This kind of opportunity is not going to be there forever," says Robert Dodge, the city's economic development director. "UNE would be very attractive to virtually any community. I don't doubt that there's going to be a highly competitive pursuit for the facility and that program."

Improving town-gown relations
No university in Maine is growing faster than UNE. Enrollment on the school's Biddeford campus (there's a second, smaller campus in Portland) has increased by 25% percent in five years, to 1,400 students. The school's waterfront site in Biddeford has been peppered with $75 million of construction and renovation in 10 years, including a $20 million health-sciences center, three new dorms holding 500 students and an $8 million marine science center where rescued seals frolic in a salt-water pool.

But if the growth on campus has affected UNE's host city, it isn't obvious downtown, where empty storefronts are numerous and few businesses, save a handful of ethnic restaurants, appeal to a collegiate crowd. "Biddeford is proud to be a university town," says Mayor Wallace Nutting, a retired four-star Army general first elected in 2003. "And there always has been a hope to see that institution establish a presence in the downtown."

Efforts to do so, however, were hampered by strained town-gown relations and locals who seemed to view the school as an imposition, not an asset. In a city infamous for bruising politics, some elected officials grumbled that nonprofit UNE was adding to police and other service costs, but didn't pay taxes. (One city councilor famously suggested the school help the city by hosting a casino on campus.) Geography also has worked against relations: UNE's coastal campus is distant from Biddeford's blue-collar center, physically and psychologically.

Yet many in Biddeford say relations between the school and city recently have turned a corner, and see pharmacy-school negotiations as proof that efforts by both sides are paying off. UNE now gives the city $50,000 annually to help with service costs, while many credit Nutting with bringing a civil tone to local politics. "The city government has just done an about face," Legg says. "It was a warzone at those city council meetings, and you didn't want to get caught in the crossfire. Now they have a very professional,
economic-development friendly focus."

There also is a sense that Biddeford and neighboring Saco are finally ready to capitalize on the wave of growth and investment that's reinvigorated cities such as Portsmouth, Portland and Westbrook, but somehow managed to mostly jump over this section of York County. "There's a buzz here now," says Doug Sanford, owner of a downtown mill that could host the school. "Biddeford-Saco is at a tipping point."

With UNE saying it needs at least 50,000 sq. ft. for the school, Sanford's building, the 300,000-square-foot North Dam mill, features prominently in pharmacy-school talks. It's empty, sits near the Amtrak station, has an ambitious owner and sports a riverfront site that could make an attractive campus. Although details are far from inked, it's likely the package offered by Biddeford to UNE will have Sanford or another private developer paying for building upgrades, perhaps with the help of federal and state grants or loans, and the city returning future tax revenues from the site to the developer. "We foresee this as being a very creative mix of public and private spending," Dodge says. "That's what it's going to take."

Still, city officials face the challenge of integrating a school with existing mill-complex uses. Contrary to perception, Biddeford's mills are not empty. The vast majority of the city's 1.2 million sq. ft. of mill space is occupied either by blanket-maker WestPoint Home or by dozens of smaller manufacturers, and it would take a deft touch to integrate a school and housing into a loud and lively industrial area. "We're mindful of the displacement issue," Dodge says. "[Manufacturing] is an important part of the mix down there. We don't want to lose that."

Complexity, however, is not limited to the Biddeford proposal. In Camden, investors offering the Knox Mill do not actually own the complex, which was sold recently by MBNA to an out-of-state firm. "We believe we could buy it, if we came to them with a reasonable offer," says Richard Anderson, founder of the Village Soup newspaper and a leader in the town's effort to lure UNE up the coast. "The biggest issue is, can we raise the $10 million. And can we raise the money to buy the property?"

Filling demand
With its hunt for a host city, UNE risks the perception that it is the educational equivalent of a sports franchise shopping for the city willing to finance the fanciest stadium. At least one York County official finds the search distasteful. "We're not going to get into a bidding game," says Saco Mayor Mark Johnston.

But Legg insists the school is "not trying to pit cities against one another" and says it has talked only with municipalities that have first approached UNE.

UNE, he notes, would pay for start-up costs unrelated to the building ˆ— expenses, for example, required to recruit and hire faculty and staff, or outfit the school with the high-tech tools needed for research and study. The university has already begun fundraising for the facility ˆ— it has even asked Maine pharmacies to help ˆ— and Legg says it's possible the university will ask lawmakers for state assistance.

Legg justifies the search for a host city by noting that nationally very few such schools are built without help. "Most of these types of professional schools are part of state universities, or are heavily subsidized by the state," he says. "They don't do that in Maine."

He also says the benefits of a pharmacy school to the entire state outweigh the drawbacks of its creation. Supporters agree, saying the school's economic importance largely rests on this fact: There's an acute shortage of pharmacists, both in Maine and nationally, due to a rapid expansion of drugstore chains, a steady supply of new medicines and an aging population. A 2005 survey by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores found 6,000 pharmacist vacancies nationally ˆ— more than twice the number found seven years prior ˆ— and declared the shortage particularly acute in Maine.

In response, universities are rushing to fill the need. Ten new drug schools have opened in the last four years, according to Lucinda Maine of the Alexandria, Va.-based American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. And with starting salaries for recent pharmacy graduates soaring toward six-figures, there is no shortage of wannabe pharmacists. In fact, the number of applicants has risen from about 24,000 nationally in 1998 to nearly 73,000 in 2003.
Still, Joe Bruno, CEO of the Augusta-based Community Pharmacies chain, says there's skepticism about whether UNE will actually launch the school, in part because the university has been floating the proposal for nearly a decade. "It just seems pie-in-the-sky to me," Bruno says. "If UNE wanted to do it, they would have done it a long time ago. And there's something like 75 pharmacy schools around the country. A start-up is not going to be an easy thing to attract people to."

While he acknowledges the growing competition, Legg says UNE's school would fill a unique need. First, it would be the only pharmacy school in northern New England (the nearest existing programs are in Boston). Second, he says, its Maine location would position it to establish a unique scientific identity by focusing on research of sea-based medicines.
Experts say the potential of the world's oceans has yet to be tapped, with as many as two million species still undiscovered. Moreover, Legg says UNE would be one of just a handful of schools in the U.S. with a marine-science program and pharmacy and medical schools, and the only university with such a combination in the northeast. "Right now, nobody is studying the Gulf of Maine," Legg says. "You always hear complaints about Maine's location. But for medicines from the sea, our location is ideal."

Talk of synergy between existing UNE programs suggests a Biddeford location for the pharmacy school is preferable. Legg agrees, but underscores that UNE's first concern is cost. He says Camden's proposal could prove more feasible for local fundraisers because the building, wired as an MBNA call center, would be relatively easy to convert to a pharmacy school. And the midcoast location could allow for cooperation with Rockland-based FMC BioPolymer in Rockland, which extracts food additives from sea vegetation, or The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor.

Legg, though, concedes a Biddeford home for the pharmacy school has dual benefits for UNE: It has convenience, and could also make the school's hometown more vibrant and attractive for faculty, staff and prospective students. Though Legg predicted the school could open by 2009, UNE has not set a deadline for proposals from cities and towns.
Now, it's up to Biddeford officials to come up with a plan. They hope to have an offer on the table by spring. "It's huge," Nutting says. "It's a number-one priority,"