TRENTON – The Jackson Laboratory will move part of its operation to the former Display Concepts building on Route 3, including a mice-breeding operation, as the lab tries to find space outside its cramped quarters in Bar Harbor.

The lab does not plan to do any research at the Trenton building, officials said.

The planning board approved the lab’s plans for the 30,000-square-foot building Wednesday after a 20-minute public hearing. In addition to breeding mice, the lab’s plans include office space for customer service representatives and technical support staff, according to Chuck Dawes, Jackson Lab’s director of facilities.

Lab officials said 70 to 80 people would work at the Trenton annex, but only 10 of those jobs will be new. The lab also plans to hire 10 more employees for its Bar Harbor facility.

The lab plans to breed hundreds of thousands of mice annually in Trenton, augmenting its production facility in Bar Harbor, Dawes said.

The lab employs 1,205 people at its Bar Harbor complex, founded in 1929 as a medical research center. About half of the staff is involved in medical research, and the other half works in the mouse production facilities.

Jackson Lab began breeding mice in 1933 when the founder needed money in a budget crunch. Last year, the lab sold nearly 2 million mice to 12,000 universities, medical schools and research labs in 56 countries.

The demand for mice has exploded in recent years after the scientific community concluded that mice are the best animals to use for genetic research.

Lab spokeswoman Joyce Peterson said Thursday that the lab has no present plans to expand further off Mount Desert Island – in Maine at least. The lab opened a West Coast breeding facility in 2000 at the University of California at Davis to better serve the lab’s customers and reduce the transportation hassles of shipping mice cross-country, Peterson said.

“We would consider the possibility of adding other production facilities in the country, but we don’t have any plans right now,” she said.

The Trenton expansion is unrelated to the lab’s five-year expansion plans for its Bar Harbor research operation, Peterson said.

The lab is negotiating a seven-year lease with the new owners of the Trenton building, with options to renew, Peterson said. Display Concepts closed because of financial problems earlier this year, leaving about 60 people unemployed.

Trenton First Selectman James Cameron said Thursday the town will be relieved to have the building occupied again and the lost jobs replaced. The town gets nearly $10,000 a year in property taxes, even after an existing tax break is considered.

The tax break, provided under the state’s Tax Increment Financing law, could be transferred to the new owners, Cameron said.

He said the town would even consider extending the TIF beyond the five years still available under the DCI deal.

Cameron said the lab has a reputation for being a good corporate citizen and the town is happy to be host of the new operation.

“We know whatever they do, they do well,” Cameron said.

No one spoke against the lab’s proposal during the brief public hearing, but some neighbors said they were worried about odors from the production facility. Dawes said the Trenton building would be equipped with an air filter system and predicted there would be little odor from the operation.

Dawes said much of the odor at the Bar Harbor lab is attributed to the sterilization process used on the mice feed. The lab plans to use pre-packaged food for the Trenton critters, he said.

The lab has no plans to either enlarge the existing Trenton building or the projected staff that will work there.

By moving some of its operation to Trenton, the lab also cuts the commuting time for some of its employees and reduces traffic on MDI, especially during the summer, when roads are choked with traffic, Dawes said.