Hermon business parks booming

HERMON – Unlike the Bermuda Triangle, the business triangle in Hermon is not a mysterious place where things disappear. Rather, it’s where they are found.

From the oldest business park – the Freedom Commerce & Industry Park built three decades ago – to its newest – Pinewood Business Park that opened last year – Hermon’s businesses along Route 2 and Odlin and Coldbrook roads has been growing.

More than a dozen businesses have moved into or expanded in the last year in what Ron Harriman, the town’s economic development director, described as strong, steady growth. That growth has taken place despite some turbulent times in the economy.

“We couldn’t be more pleased that the business activity in Hermon has remained strong despite the fluctuations in the economy over the last few years,” Harriman said Friday.

Harriman said a combination of low taxes, town-offered incentives, easy access to the interstate and a streamlined approval process have helped make Hermon an attractive location.

Town staff have bent over backward to work with business applicants for development approval and the town’s code enforcement officer has discretion in granting approval and streamlining the process, provided the businesses satisfy the town’s requirements.

Hermon also offers tax increment financing [TIF] packages through the state as well as its own loan program for smaller businesses, Harriman said. And the proximity to the interstate and visibility along well-traveled roads add to the attractiveness of operating in Hermon.

“Geographically we couldn’t be in a better location,” Harriman said.

Then there is the free dial-up Internet service the town offers to its residents and businesses.

Chad Walton was attracted by what Hermon had to offer and set up shop last December in the Coldbrook Business Park.

His business, AKTEM – its name is taken from the first initial of each of his five children – offers office and storage space for businesses, such as Carmel Electric Co., Pepperidge Farms and Maine Accessibility Corp.

“They [town officials] were incredibly easy to work with as far as business development,” Walton said Friday.

His facility is about 70 percent full, and Walton already is working on expanding his operations, he said.

Expansions or new facilities are going in elsewhere as well.

Dysart’s added 60,000 square feet to its storage facility last fall. Harriman said that Dysart’s need to find increased storage is a hopeful indicator of an improving economy.

Fastenal, an industrial supply company, has moved into the Pinewood Business Park that opened last year, and Massey Ferguson, a lawn tractor sales and services business, is scheduled to open in the park in a few weeks.

Harriman said the three remaining lots in the park are under negotiation.

Other businesses that have moved into Hermon in the last year include: Route 2 Auto Sales, Freedom Fire & Safety, CMD Power Systems, Peter A. Lyford Inc., MAACO, Lenox Welding Supply, D.L. Roope – which administers state board exams for cosmetology, Pine State Concrete Pumping and Vaughn Thibodeau & Sons Inc., an earthworking and construction company.