LIMESTONE – Loring Development Authority officials received word Tuesday that they will get a $1.4 million economic development grant from the U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration.

The money will be used to renovate 119,000 square feet of Building 7210 to house two companies, Pattison Sign Group of Canada and Telford Aviation-Volvo Aeroservices.

The grant will be matched with $940,000 from the LDA to create a fund of $2,350,000. Along with the renovation project, the LDA will demolish several substandard buildings on the former Air Force base that can be used for other opportunities.

“This is great news for us,” Brian Hamel, president and CEO of the Loring Commerce Centre, said Tuesday. “The EDA has been very supportive of us, and have approved us for other grants in the past.

“They continue to support us by investing money, and they get jobs in return,” he said. “We have proven demonstrable results in the past.”

Hamel said the project was assisted greatly by the Northern Maine Development Commission, which placed the LDA project on a “high-priority list.”

The renovation project, which will begin Jan. 1, will cost an estimated $1.1 million.

Pattison Sign Group, a Vancouver, British Columbia, company with a sign-making plant at Edmundston, New Brunswick, has proposed opening a manufacturing, assembly and distribution plant at Loring for a U.S. business it is building.

The Edmundston company makes signs for a large number of national and international companies. Its customers include petroleum companies, major department stores and major chain stores. The company recently opened a new multimillion-dollar plant in Edmundston.

The group has proposed using 80,000 square feet of space in a plant that would employ 100 to 150 people.

“We have now lived up to our end of the bargain with Pattison,” Hamel said. “It is now up to them to secure enough business and make a decision to locate here.

“We anticipate a decision from them by the end of the year,” he said.

The remaining 40,000 square feet in Building 7010 already is being used by the aviation group. The building will become the home of an aircraft parts distribution center.

Renovations will be conducted while the company is in the building. The work would include renovations to the electrical systems, air compression system, docking and office facilities.

Hamel said $1,250,000 would be used to demolish substandard structures. That will be used to entice new construction for yet unidentified tenants.

He said the former base has a number of unmarketable buildings, which have deteriorated since the Air Force left Limestone. They must be taken down.

The demolition work is expected to be done next spring.