Bring on the City D’arcy Main-Boyington is already in the know when it comes to development strategies for Brewer

It’s good to know the ropes and who to talk to in Augusta when looking for state help with economic development projects such as revamping Brewer’s defunct Eastern Fine Paper Co. mill site or revitalizing the city’s waterfront.

Now that the city has announced its partnerships to create a biotechnology research center within Brewer, it doesn’t hurt to have a city employee with five years of experience as a business development specialist for the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development.

Brewer officials knew last year that they would be busy with city projects under development and started back then to solicit D’arcy Main-Boyington to fill a part-time position to help out.

“She’s perhaps one of the best economic development specialists in the state,” City Manager Steve Bost said recently. “We were looking for someone who could hit the ground running.”

Main-Boyington took the job five months ago. She worked for DECD in Bangor but knows Augusta like the back of her hand and knows which programs can be used to promote projects within the city, Drew Sachs, Brewer’s economic development director, said recently.

“She understands a lot of those programs and the key players,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest assets she’s brought to the table.”

Main-Boyington wears two hats as the city’s deputy director of economic development and as a managing director of South Brewer Redevelopment, which has the job of redeveloping the defunct Easter Fine Paper Co. mill site.

She also has been working with Sachs to develop Dirigo Drive and the Brewer Professional Center, which lies at the end of the newly constructed roadway and is where the city’s partnership will create the biotechnology center.

The city, along with Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems, The Jackson Laboratory of Bar Harbor and the University of Maine, has partnered to create the Maine Institute for Human Genetics and Health, a new 5,000-square-foot research facility, that will be housed in the Cianchette Building.

The building, which lies near the junction of Interstate 395 and outer Wilson Street, was completed last spring and already is home to EMHS corporate offices. The plan is to build three other multilevel buildings at the 71-acre site, which means there is tons of work ahead, Main-Boyington said.

“Drew has experience on the federal level, and I have experience at the state level,” she said. “All that experience helps because I know the agencies and what they can offer. He has a lot of experience in areas I don’t.

“Together we make a great team.”

DECD Commissioner Jack Cashman, who was Main-Boyington’s boss, agrees that the Brewer partnership between Sachs and his former employee works well.

“I think they are as good a local economic development team as can be in the state,” he said.

As a state employee, Main-Boyington helped businesses to expand and grow. If a business was in trouble, it was her job to lend a hand. “So I had to know all the assistance [programs] available,” which helps her with her new job, she said.

It was the positive attitude of Brewer officials that finally convinced Main-Boyington to leave her state job.

“In my old job with the state, I covered six counties in eastern Maine and saw various abandoned mills and mill sites, but never had a community that viewed it as an opportunity,” she said. “When Brewer was faced with [the mill closing], they got excited and decided to do something.

“I decided that was the kind of place I wanted to work,” the Hampden resident said.

Cashman said DECD actually offered Main-Boyington a promotion to try to keep her at her state post.

“Drew was smart enough to see her talent and offer her a nice part-time position with Brewer,” he said. “We hated to lose her.”

Main-Boyington said the state’s job offer was enticing, but for health and family reasons she chose to make the change.

“I have a young son, and it’s important to me to be home with him,” she said of her son, Jed, 4. Three horses, two Great Danes, two cats and husband Daryl Boyington also fill her free hours.

Since taking her post, Main-Boyington has spent a good portion of her time giving tours of the empty Eastern Fine mill to developers, city and state officials and local residents.

The city took ownership of the mill site in May 2004 and is working with a Minnesota-based developer to create a multiuse facility that includes shopping, restaurants, entertainment and housing at the South Main Street site.

She also has spent time creating a new marketing strategy for Brewer and is working with the Penobscot Public Advisory Committee.

“My expectations of D’arcy were very high from the beginning, and to be able to say she’s exceeded that is making quite a statement, but she has,” Bost said. “She’s a stellar performer.”