EAST MILLINOCKET – Call it a very sweet deal.

Businessman Richard Allen is expected to meet with the Board of Selectmen today to ink a deal to buy a lot in the town industrial park for a small maple syrup bottling factory, storage facility and office to be operational sometime next year.

Allen said he expects to employ two part-timers at the factory, with further expansion possible if all goes well.

The meeting is set for 4 p.m. The public is invited.

The deal is the latest within the Katahdin Regional Industrial Park off Route 157. At least four other businesses own or use space within the 19-lot park, which features electricity and sewer connections and close access to Route 157 and Interstate 95. The lots range from 0.895 to 6.12 acres.

Included among the businesses moving in is Porter’s Woodworking Co., which hopes to relocate to a 15,000-square-foot building at the park as early as Jan. 1.

Located at 533 Shin Pond Road in Patten, the company makes paddles, canoe parts, canoe seats and canoe seat-hangers. Since a June 20 fire hit the plant, about half the factory’s operations have been conducted under a tent.

The fire destroyed a mill that included a planer and woodcutter, plus paddle-making machinery and a wood laminator. The town planning board approved the business with a 3-0 vote Wednesday.

Another business in the park is a father-son team that sells firewood and hopes eventually to open a wood mill.