Reinventing Wiscasset | Public and private efforts spur redevelopment of two industrial sites in this midcoast town

The large white sign on the side of Route One sets the town's tone: "Wiscasset, the Prettiest Village in Maine." The town is a picture postcard of idealized Maine, with white steepled churches, narrow streets lined with early 19th-century brick buildings and a commanding courthouse on a tree-enveloped green.

But today, after nearly seven years of economic turmoil, this pretty little village is getting down to the work of reinventing itself as something more than a picturesque setting. "The town was hidden in the shadow of Maine Yankee for years," says Andrew Gilmore, director of Wiscasset's Office of Economic and Community Development. "Now Wiscasset's entering a new chapter, and all of us are writing it."

Two major development projects have spurred the new sense of optimism in Wiscasset: the redevelopment of Mason Station, the old coal- and oil-fired electricity plant situated on the Sheepscot River, and the planned reuse of a 441-acre segment of Maine Yankee's property on Westport Island. Two midcoast companies have already said they will relocate to the sites, both of which are slated for redevelopment by National RE/ sources LLC, a Greenwich, Conn. industrial development firm whose president maintains a personal interest in Wiscasset.

To understand the town's change in fortunes, one need only go back 10 years. The Maine Yankee nuclear plant was pumping an average $12 million in tax revenues annually into the town's coffers. Municipal life was "easy," according to Seaver Leslie, a painter and descendent of one of the original families to settle Wiscasset, "fat and happy" in the words of Steve Cole, community developer at Coastal Enterprises Inc., a nonprofit community development corporation in Wiscasset. "Quiet" is how Ethan Tancredi, part owner of Treats, a gourmet food store on Main Street, describes the town in those days.

That $12 million made up nearly 80% of Wiscasset's entire tax revenue. Thus the town's property taxes were low, Wiscasset's public schools were the envy of surrounding communities and municipal budgets were set smoothly and without rancor. Town affairs were easily managed by a three-person board of selectmen, one of whom had served for more than two decades.

All this changed in the mid-1990s. Maine Yankee, which had been under pressure from concerned citizens for years to cease its operations, announced that it would close the nuclear plant. Suddenly Wiscasset was no longer protected from the difficult realities experienced by other municipalities in Maine. What once was taken for granted ˆ— nearly unlimited school budgets, extraordinary community recreational facilities, new fire trucks and police vehicles ˆ— vanished.

In August 1997, Maine Yankee officially went offline and closed its doors for good. Soon wags in town began calling for the famous sign to be rewritten ˆ— rather than "Prettiest Village in Maine," they suggested, perhaps the sign should read "Pettiest Village in Maine."

It seemed that all that the town government and residents could do after Maine Yankee shut down was squabble. "It was part of the town's earlier isolation," says Gilmore. "Wiscasset lacked a frame of reference for dealing with the new situation."

"It was a like a death in the family," explains Cole. "The town was splintered for a long time. They were trying to reinvent themselves without any tools to work with." Town budgets had to be slashed to keep pace with diminished revenues. The Ames department store on Route One closed down when the chain went bankrupt; no new businesses seemed to want to take the chance on floundering Wiscasset, which badly needed new sources of revenue.

The school budget, always a sensitive topic for residents, took continued cuts while property taxes began a sharp increase. "Fiddling and paring away at budgets brings out the worst in everyone," Cole says. "That time was very unstable."

Bringing back brownfields
In 2002, seeing the need for significant changes, the town did away with the old First Selectman form of town leadership. Instead, a new town manager position was created and the board of selectmen expanded to five members. New faces joined town committees; Gilmore was hired as economic and community development director in 2003. Some residents liked the change; others still grumble. "I don't like to see it," confesses Leslie. "I hate to see the traditional way of doing things, with participation from local people, change. Professionals are now running the town."

Then National RE/sources came to town. The national development firm specializes in the reuse of industrial properties and environmental remediation. Specifically, the company rehabilitates brownfields: industrial properties that are abandoned or underutilized and often are environmentally contaminated. Because they are industrial, brownfield sites are often located on waterfront land; creative reuse can bring those properties back onto a community's tax rolls. For a company willing to focus on reuse rather than new growth, Wiscasset had two large and challenging properties to work with.

In December 2003 National RE/sources purchased the 360,000-square-foot Mason Station power plant and 33 acres of land for $3.9 million from FPL Energy of Florida. Earlier this year, Joseph Cotter, National RE/sources' president, announced that Mason Station likely would be renovated into a mixed-use "maritime village" development, with housing, retail shops, non-manufacturing business space, a marina and possibly a hospitality and culinary arts school.

According to Scott Houldin, project manager for National RE/sources, Cotter had his eye on Mason Station for many years. "Mr. Cotter has summered here for the past 10 years," Houldin says. "His wife's family once owned the homestead at Birch Point" upon which Mason Station was built in 1941.

Mason Station's recent history was a bit rocky. FPL bought the plant from Central Maine Power in 1999, and then took two of its five generators off line. When its federal license to produce energy expired in 2003, the company seemed ready to sell the plant. Last fall, Thomaston-based Dragon Cement expressed interest in buying Mason Station because of its deep water and railway connections. Town residents proved unreceptive to renewed industrial use of the facility. Cotter's plan, by contrast, is meeting with enthusiastic approval from town officials and residents alike.

"I have great hopes for the project," says Treats owner Tancredi. "The people from National RE/sources are very motivated and visionary. They recognize that the downtown area here isn't huge, and that Mason Station could be an extension of downtown. The key thing is how to connect the development back to Main Street."

Houldin estimates that conceptual plans will be ready for the town to review by early summer. Once all the environmental issues ˆ— removal of asbestos, contaminated soil and other residuals from the plant's operation ˆ— are addressed, the company would like to start renovations in 2005. "This is smart growth," explains Houldin. "The station has always been used as an industrial site. If the town grows, it shouldn't take new land for growth; it can reuse what it has."

Technology Systems Inc., a local firm that develops advanced technology applications, is tentatively scheduled to relocate to existing office space at Mason Station later this year, says Gilmore.

Marketing a nuclear plant
During the more than six months of discussions between the town and National RE/sources about Mason Station, town officials and company staff became familiar with each other, which prompted thoughts of another deal. "After the town got to know us a little better, they presented the Maine Yankee property to us as another redevelopment prospect," says Houldin.

As part of the plant's decommissioning agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Maine Yankee property was divided into three parcels. A 200-acre tract of undeveloped land, known as the Eaton Farm, is being conveyed by Maine Yankee to the adjacent Chewonki Foundation. Bailey Point, which was the site of the cooling towers and contains the plant's spent fuel rods, has been retained by the company and remains off limits for the immediate future. The third parcel comprises 441 acres of land with rail spur, fiber optic cables, barge slip, sewer and water pipes, and transmission lines to the state's electricity grid.

National RE/sources found the property's potential enticing. Thus, the town this June will buy the 441-acre parcel from Maine Yankee for $1.75 million. It then will immediately sell the land to National RE/sources for the same amount.

The Wiscasset Regional Development Corporation, a nonprofit entity created 18 months ago as a collaboration among CEI, Chewonki Foundation, Lincoln County and the town of Wiscasset to encourage development at Maine Yankee, recently received $1 million in funds from the federal department of Housing and Urban Development to "cover those extraordinary costs associated with redevelopment," according to Cole of CEI. The federal funds pay for legal due diligence investigations, insurance and planning work.

Last month Wiscasset received authorization from the state Legislature to create a $1 million bond to cover additional infrastructure costs ˆ— roads, electricity and permit costs ˆ— associated with development on the Maine Yankee land. And in August construction will start on a new 40,000-square-foot building for Rynel Co. of Boothbay, a manufacturer of high-end surgical foam.

The Rynel building is a significant milestone on the road to a new life for the Maine Yankee property, says Cole. He notes that the land is ideal for modern businesses, with so many critical amenities already in place. "The challenge [for redevelopment] is partially psychological. It was a nuclear plant and will have stored spent fuel nearby," Cole points out. "The biggest challenge is to get that first business onto the property."

Houldin feels optimistic when asked about marketing a former nuclear plant to new businesses. Still, he admits, "We are going to be the first to do it."

National RE/sources has completed renovation of major industrial properties in 16 states in its seven-year history, and Houldin feels that marketing Maine Yankee will follow a pattern similar to earlier projects. "You have to educate people about the site and note how their concerns have been mitigated," he says. "It's a challenge, of course, but the benefits here outweigh the costs." According to Houldin and Gilmore, those benefits include the fact that Maine Yankee falls within the town's Pine Tree Zone, a state designation that offers tax incentives and other enticements to businesses that create high-salary, permanent jobs within the zone. "Plus there's the quality of life on the coast," continues Houldin, "good access to water, rail and air transportation and a strong labor force."

Houldin notes that the company is viewing the Mason Station and Maine Yankee properties as synergistic developments that will complement each other when fully realized. "We know that this will be a long haul," he says, adding, "It's not going to happen overnight."

While Leslie thinks that the town is still reacting to the shock of Maine Yankee closing down, he believes that National RE/sources plan for Mason Station is "great." "They are environmentally conscious and love our harbor," he says. "I think they will be good people to have here ˆ— very creative."

Tancredi, who serves on the town's beleagured budget committee, looks forward to the influx of new businesses and residents to Wiscasset he hopes the redevelopment will bring. "My business revenues have been growing steadily over the last three years," he explains. "But most of my customers come from other towns right now. I have great hopes for the Mason Station project bringing benefits to the store."