CommTel proposes data center

PORTLAND – A communications company announced Tuesday that it is prepared to spend $45 million to build a data center in downtown Portland that it says will bring cutting-edge Internet connections to Maine’s largest city.

CommTel, one of the state’s largest Internet service providers, wants to build Maine’s first “Network Access Point,” according to Scott Roberts, the company’s president and chief operating officer.

The so-called NAP will provide faster access to the Internet and the ability to process greater amounts of data, Roberts said. It is technology like that, he added, that could attract health care, financial and real estate companies that need advanced technologies for their business.

“If we’re going to move into the next phase of the technology economy in Maine,” Roberts said, “this piece is essential.”

CommTel, though, has a key hurdle to overcome. The company, which is based in Winthrop, has applied to the city for $6.6 million worth of tax increment financing to help pay for construction, renovation and equipment.

The company has told the city that it can’t afford to do the project without the tax break, according to Lee Urban, Portland’s economic development director.

Portland has issued only five TIF agreements over the years, Urban said, and this project will face heavy scrutiny from the City Council.

CommTel, which started as a small local telephone company in 1898, is a diversified communications company with 140 employees, offering a range of services for homes and businesses. It is publicly traded and had revenues of $12.1 million last year.

The data center would be at 380 Cumberland Ave., in 16,000 square feet of space in the former New England Telephone building. An operations center would be built nearby, at 39 Forest Ave.

The Forest Avenue site would open this summer, and the full data center would be running by next spring.