With former Brunswick Landing leader aboard, Loring Commerce Centre is ready for take-off

Courtesy / Loring Development Authority, SHL Enterprise Solutions Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone

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The former executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority — who led the transformation of Brunswick’s shuttered naval air station into a thriving business community — has been tapped to lead a new business development and marketing initiative at Loring Commerce Centre in Limestone.

Steve Levesque, a 2018 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year, retired last year from the authority and now operates an economic development consulting firm in Greenville, SHL Enterprise Solutions.

Levesque served as the executive director of MRRA from its launch in 2008 until December 2021, when he was succeeded by Kristine Logan. He previously was executive director of the Brunswick Local Redevelopment Authority, which drafted the master plan for repurposing U.S. Naval Air Station Brunswick.

FILE PHOTO / TIM GREENWAY

Steve Levesque

Now SHL will work with the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development and the Loring Development Authority of Maine to implement a business sustainability plan for the revitalization of the former Loring Air Force Base. The plan was completed last year and adopted by the Loring Development Authority’s board of trustees.

“My job is to tell the story of Loring and how it can be important asset for northern Maine,” Levesque told Mainebiz.

SHL will partner with Designlab, a full-service graphic design and marketing agency based in Millinocket, and Bull Rock Consulting, a strategic development firm, based in Portland.

The initiative will be funded through a $400,000 investment included in the state's current supplemental budget.

The focus is on drawing new business investment to the Loring Commerce Centre and improving economic activity in central Aroostook County. The consultants will focus on strengthening brand awareness and implementation of a robust national and international business marketing strategy with a focus on attracting business sectors to Loring.

Priority sectors include transportation equipment, agricultural products, wood products, aerospace and energy operations.

The Loring campus consists of 3,800 acres, including a large aviation complex and more than 2.7 million square feet of available building space.

“Like anything else, you have to market the property,” said Levesque. “We’re going to hit the streets, just like we did with Brunswick. Brunswick was a lot of hard work at the beginning. We were at trade shows and events all the time with that property. That’s the same type of tactics we’ll use with Loring.”

Loring Commerce Centre is a vastly underutilized property, with significant “open the door ready” facilities to support new economic investment, according to SHL’s proposal to the Department of Economic and Community Development.

“Loring possesses outstanding opportunities to support the future industries of Maine,” the document says.

Courtesy / Loring Development Authority, SHL Enterprise Solutions

The Loring campus consists of 3,800 acres, including a large aviation complex and more than 2.7 million square feet of available building space.

The primary objective of the project is to attract new business investment to bring quality jobs and improved economic vitality to the facility.

The team proposes to satisfy the objective by accomplishing the following tasks:

Redesign the Loring Development Authority website to make it more interactive and user friendly (to include mapping and aerial videos of key assets).
Develop and manage a social media campaign to enhance awareness of Loring’s assets and drive interest to the website and the LDA.
Work with marketing partners (DECD, Maine & Co., FocusMaine, industry groups, Loring businesses and developers, etc.) to expand marketing reach.
Publish a quarterly e-newsletter for distribution to key industry decision-makers, marketing partners, state and local officials and the general public.
Prepare press announcements and articles.
Produce, market and distribute promotional materials suitable for business attraction.
Conduct market research to determine “best fit” business prospects leads for Loring.
Develop key advertising to support target sector attraction.
Develop presentation booth to support trade show participation.
Attend up to 12 targeted industry trade shows and events in the business sectors of transportation equipment, agricultural products, wood products, aerospace, and energy.
Conduct target business visits to prospects and host prospect visits to Loring.
Explore and capitalize on new emerging business opportunities.
Assist with securing additional financial resources to support the development of an airport master plan and other critical initiatives related to overcoming defense dependency, ensuring energy resiliency and improving economic vitality in the region.

“Loring Commerce Centre is a major economic asset for Aroostook County, and it has significant infrastructure that’s ready to welcome new business investment,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement. “This new campaign will help to ensure that businesses and investors around the world know why Aroostook County — and Maine — is a great place to do business.”

Mills proposed funding for the effort in her supplemental budget proposal, which she signed into law on April 20.