Former home for mentally disabled now a business community

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NEW GLOUCESTER – When author and photographer Richard Kimball first walked the empty buildings of Pineland as he began to document the state of the facility in the early months of 2000, the word “bleak” kept ringing in his head.

Once called the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded, Pineland was Maine’s shelter for mentally retarded people from 1908 to 1996, when it was closed and abandoned by the state.

By the time Kimball toured the campus, the paint was peeling from walls, windows were cracked and broken, ceilings had collapsed in piles of plaster.

Pipes leaked, roofs leaked, secrets even seemed to leak from the buildings. Rooms were littered with pieces of wheelchairs and collections of crutches. Written on a blackboard in one room was the message “Welcome to hell.”

Today, just four years later, the campus has been resurrected by the Libra Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation created by Maine resident Elizabeth Noyce in 1989 which has about $300 million in assets, accumulated by her husband, the founder of Intel Corp.

From the rotting buildings that Kimball documented have risen a campus and landscape of attractive, restored businesses and farms taking in $1 million in rental fees a year.

Not only is it the site of a dozen prospering businesses, the farm also has become home to research facilities for cow embryo research and one of the country’s most distinctive hydroponic greenhouses.

The surrounding community hasn’t been left out of the transformation.

The former Pineland campus contains three tennis courts built for area residents. It has more than 30 miles of carefully tended hiking and cross-country trails. Summer camps for children are held, as are year-round public events, such as gardening seminars, wool and fiber gatherings and orienteering classes.

“I don’t think anyone but Libra could have done that,” said former Gov. Angus King, who was in office when Pineland was first offered for sale. “We needed someone who was patient, who could accomplish a first-class renovation, and, in fact, that happened.”

Once an eyesore and a huge property that wasn’t required to pay taxes, Pineland is now New Gloucester’s largest taxpayer, bringing in nearly $300,000 annually to the town.

Pineland is the best thing that has ever happened to New Gloucester, said Town Manager Rosemary Kulow.

“It is a jewel,” she said. “There have been such improvements to the landscape. There are gardens and the equestrian center and cross-country ski trails. An added benefit is that they are buying large open spaces for preservation and protection. It’s just a joy to have Pineland in New Gloucester.”

Owen Wells, Libra Foundation president, said Pineland has come full circle.

“In its first 50 years, it was a state-of-the-art facility and Maine was leading the way in the treatment of the mentally ill. It consisted of several farms and was self-sustaining. It created a microcosm of society. The farms supplied meat, eggs and food. The first 50 years worked beautifully,” Wells said.

Pineland’s goal today is to take the success of the first 50 years and multiply it, adding an emphasis on education, research and recreation.

The public service programs are funded by leases and fees on the renovated buildings, now used by independent businesses such as Pine Tree Telephone and Energy East, the parent company of Central Maine Power.

Wells said that’s the way Pineland works: Create an opportunity for the public, for incubator businesses, for fledgling farmers – and support that with rental fees. “We are at 65 percent occupancy,” he said.

Buying the property

Before those spaces could be offered, Wells said, the crumbling walls and rotting roofs had to be replaced. “We spent $4 million in cleaning before we ever started the retrofit,” he said.

The Libra Foundation bought the campus and 1,000 acres in 1996. It had been empty, abandoned and neglected for four years. “The state hadn’t put any money into it for 15 years,” Wells said. “We paid $200,000, which was basically a donation. They were looking to get rid of it.” Libra also paid $540,000 for 617 acres surrounding the campus.

Of the 23 buildings purchased, four had to be torn down. Renovations took years and cost more than $40 million.

“The state of Maine made a huge mistake selling it to us,” Wells said. “This is something the state should have done. We – the state – continue to build and rent facilities, none of them as good as these buildings.

“The foundation’s vision was to create a unique community by attracting a variety of nonprofit and for-profit businesses, organizations and services. We also wanted to show the state what a mistake they made,” Wells said.

King said, however, that selling the property was not a mistake. “The state is not in the real estate business,” he said. “It was a very deliberate decision to sell Pineland. It would have required too much cash to reclaim. As it was, we put it out to bid and had very little interest.”

Besides the original investment and renovation costs, King said, there was the cost of carrying Pineland until it became financially stable.

“Unfortunately, it came to fruition just as the economy went sour,” he said. “Now, things are really starting to happen.”

Equestrian center and other programs

High on a hill once dominated by only a water tank, Pineland’s equestrian center boasts a maze of high-tech barns, an Olympic-level training staff and a breeding program featuring prized Dutch Warmblood horses. The center is a horse therapy facility, serving 75 people, mostly children, and housing more than 60 horses.

“It is the largest and best therapy facility in the United States,” Wells said. “The breeding program is designed to support the therapy center.” Additional income is provided by the National Weather Service, which leases space. Other sources of income are summer riding camps and pleasure riding lessons. The huge riding ring is leased out to auctions, horse sales and shows such as alpaca conventions and Katahdin Hair sheep functions.

On the other side of the campus is a series of innovative greenhouses where lessee Scott Howard is growing hydroponic tomatoes, basil, lettuce and oregano that he markets to Hannaford and Wild Oats under the Olivia’s Garden label. Other crops grown on the farm are sold at a seasonal farmers market and used in the campus cafeteria, which is shared with the public.

The entire greenhouse operation is run by computer, which monitors temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels. Barrels of liquid nutrients are fed to the plants through tubes, saturating the growing medium of shredded coconut shells.

“This allows us to have a 12-month season,” said Howard, “and be competitive in marketing.” A single tomato plant – at an amazing 15 feet high – will produce for nine months. Boxes of bees pollinate the plants. Part of the learning curve of this new business was how to use misshapen or imperfect tomatoes. The idea of salsa and sauces was born, also marketed as Olivia’s Garden.

True to Libra’s dedication to education, the greenhouses are visited frequently by farmers and others seeking information about hydroponic growing methods.

Just a pasture away is Pineland’s dairy operation. “These are pampered cows,” said Craig Denekas, vice president at Libra. It may be the only dairy barn in Maine with a classroom filled with child-size tables and chairs adjacent to the milking parlor, used frequently by school groups and children’s tours.

The breeding stock of Holsteins goes back to the first cows brought to America, said Denekas, and Pineland is working with Bowdoin College on embryo research. “We are shipping embryos to Europe, England and Japan,” he said.

This program will be augmented by Wilsondale Farm, just acquired by Pineland, which will be an organic dairy.

Adjacent to the dairy operation, bright orange stakes indicate the future location of a cheese factory that will be constructed next spring and use on-farm cream to make artisan cheese. “It is not folly,” Denekas said. “It is another way to support this organization.”

Pineland also has a working relationship with Wolfe’s Neck Farm in Freeport, which produces natural beef for Hannaford’s East Coast stores.

“We are seeing this as a way to convert unprofitable dairy operations into profitable beef farms,” Denekas said. “We experimented last summer by putting 40 beef on our pastures from April to October. When they were sold to Wolfe’s Neck in the fall, we made $7,000 profit, just by letting them graze. We can use this information to demonstrate profitability and recruit other farms that may be struggling.”

Well said the idea is to find ways for farmers who are unable to make it in one market segment to find a new, profitable segment.

Buying into the agritourism industry, Pineland has developed a former farmhouse at Wilsondale Farm as a retreat used by corporations, ski clinics, and executives for long-term planning sessions.

Since the original purchase, Libra has bought several other abutting farms, including the Hill Farm and the Valley Farm from the state Department of Conservation. Both facilities are now functioning farms. “This is part of our goal, to conserve land,” Denekas said. “If an area farm comes up for sale and it fits our vision, we try to buy it.”

Making Maine a better place to live

Today, a day care center, computer businesses, a dentist’s office, a training center for the hearing impaired and executive offices for a number of businesses are located on campus. Pineland’s former laundry has been transformed into a visitors center, bakery and cafe, and Pineland has its own athletic facilities for employees and their families, including a pool, basketball court and bowling alley, operated by the YMCA with 1,400 members.

The bottom line, Wells said, for both Pineland and other Libra projects, is a shared goal of making Maine a better place to live. “We are coming full circle,” he said. “We are back to the original days of Pineland when it was a self-sustaining community, growing and raising its own food, providing its own recreation yet still an integral part of the surrounding community.”

As Richard Kimball wrote in his documentation of Pineland, “It’s a story without an end, a story that continues today, because Pineland and its many counterparts continue to influence care of people with disabilities in the twenty-first century.”