TRENTON – The Jackson Laboratory is in discussions with two business partners about possibly leasing the former Display Concepts Inc. building on Route 3, officials confirmed Monday.

Michael Bierman of Hancock said he and his partner, Tryg Olson of Danville, Calif., have put money down on the building to take it off the market until the pair can conclude sale negotiations with Peoples Heritage Bank.

Bierman and Olson worked for Display Concepts for five and seven years, respectively, before the company closed May 17 because of financial problems. Bierman worked in purchasing and accounting, and Olson was the firm’s West Coast sales director.

“Initially we were looking at buying the building and assets and [to] keep DCI in business, but it was too risky,” Bierman said. “We would have been putting our necks way too far out” to get the company up and running again, including mortgaging their homes and personally guaranteeing the project.

Forty workers lost their jobs when the plant closed. Display Concepts, founded in 1973, designed and built interior signs and displays for business and industry.

Brian Arsenault, a spokesman for Peoples Heritage Bank in Portland, confirmed that the bank now holds the mortgage on the building and that talks are under way to close a deal.

Meanwhile, Jackson Laboratory spokeswoman Joyce Peterson confirmed Monday that lab officials are negotiating with Bierman and Olson possibly to lease the 33,000-square-foot building. She said part of the negotiation focus was on “what could be appropriately moved to Trenton” from the lab facility in Bar Harbor.

The lab is working to get town approval to expand its world-famous facility as biomedical research funding and breakthroughs continue to climb. At the same time, the lab and its 1,200 employees continue to grapple with traffic and parking concerns in Bar Harbor, as well as the high cost of living on Mount Desert Island.

Opening a facility in Trenton could help alleviate some of those problems.

Jackson Laboratory is divided into two main divisions: medical research and a mouse-breeding facility that supplies laboratory animals to the Bar Harbor laboratory and to public and private labs around the country.

Peterson said the lab might have more developments to report within the next two weeks regarding the Trenton facility.

Bierman declined to say how much money he and Olson are willing to pay for the Route 3 building.