Business news

Bangor

Forest business expansion

Prentiss & Carlisle, an 80-year-old forest management firm, announced recently its acquisition of George Banzhaf & Co., one of the oldest forest resource consulting companies in the United States.

According to Donald P. White, president of Prentiss & Carlisle, the acquisition adds nearly 300,000 acres of northern Michigan timberland to the 1.09 million acres in Maine managed by Prentiss & Carlisle. It also adds the consulting and appraisal business – and George Banzhaf & Company president Samuel J. Radcliffe – to the Prentiss & Carlisle team.

“Prentiss & Carlisle is as vertically integrated a company as there is in this business,” said White, “but the capability to provide our clients with certified appraisals was the one piece we were missing. Now it will become a highlight of our service portfolio.

“On the other side, we bring the talents of 60 professional employees, including 15 licensed foresters, to Banzhaf clients. So, we’ve expanded the geographical range and the skill sets of both companies.”

Radcliffe, now a vice president of Prentiss & Carlisle, will oversee the company’s Lake States operations and lead in the development of an expanded consulting and valuation team.

“The acquisition makes Prentiss & Carlisle one of the few multiregional management firms in the country,” said White. “We now have the ability to service long-term management contracts in both the Midwest and Northeast, and we will be better able to provide appraisal and due-diligence consulting on a national scale.

Founded in 1924, Prentiss & Carlisle provides an array of strategic, administrative, and operational forest management services to meet its clients’ diverse objectives – from aesthetics to optimum rate of return on investment – while practicing responsible forest stewardship. Core capabilities include forest planning and management; woodlot services; wood products marketing; harvesting and transportation of timber; road and bridge building and maintenance; and consulting, valuation and accounting services. More information is available at www.prentiss

andcarlisle.com.

Orono

Technology grants

The Maine Technology Institute board of directors approved development awards to two technology companies in Orono. The grants were part of $1.5 million in awards in the state, matched by some $3.7 million from other sources.

. Maine Halibut Farms in Orono received a grant to demonstrate commercial scale viability of its land-based fish farming technology, which will provide live and fresh-farmed halibut for sale on a year-round basis. The company will use MTI funds to test and optimize its rearing technology based on results of an on-going trial of preliminary system designs and operations.

. Maine Specialty Materials LLC in Orono currently develops a prototype zeolite photocatalyst being tested for the remediation of nerve agent simulants and actual agents at the U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center. The company will use MTI funding to expand its efforts in zeolite manufacturing by upgrading both catalyst synthesis and screening capabilities. The scope of work includes prototype development and testing.

Companies funded by MTI are leveraging nearly $200 million from public and private sources and are creating jobs faster with higher wages than the average Maine company.

MTI development awards range up to $500,000 for “near to market” technology commercialization projects less than three years from sales.

Projects more than three years from sales are eligible for a “far to market” development award of up to $250,000. The awards are offered on a competitive basis to support early activities for product development, commercialization or business planning and development. Each award requires a 1:1 match consisting of actual cash, salaries, staff time or equipment directly attributable to the proposed project.

MTI was created by the Legislature in 1999 to encourage, promote, stimulate and support research and development activity leading to the commercialization of new products and services in the state’s technology-intensive industrial sectors. Programs are designed to enhance the competitive position of those sectors and increase the likelihood that one or more of the sectors will support clusters of industrial activity and create new jobs.

Development awards are awarded three times each year. The application deadline for the next round of awards is Feb. 6.

Information about development awards is available at www.mainetechnology.org/.