ELLSWORTH – The large sign beckoning people to the Ellsworth Commerce Park is clearly visible from Route 1A about a mile before the center of town. But the lone business – Coastal Health and Skin Center – listed among nine other blank spaces on the sign looks lonely at the top.

The local dermatology and physical therapy practice soon may have company, however.

It has taken nearly four years, but the city’s business park is finally gaining momentum in attracting tenants and city leaders only hope the trend continues.

The city council approved this week the sale of three lots in the Ellsworth Commerce Park and Micki Sumpter, the city’s economic development director, said two more potential buyers have expressed interest.

“I think in the last year-and-a-half, we’ve really started focusing on this park and marketing it,” Sumpter said Tuesday at the Ellsworth Chamber of Commerce, where she also is executive director.

The park, which sits on Lakes Lane just off Route 1A, has 10 lots ranging from 1 to 1.5 acres in size. Since it was built in 2002, however, only Coastal Health & Skin Center has moved in.

While Ellsworth has not had problems luring retail businesses recently – as evidenced by the development of the Beckwith triangle area – the city has not been as successful in attracting other types of businesses.

Because that task has been difficult, the city has offered incentive-based financing for potential tenants and those incentives are starting to pay off.

“In the beginning, I think there was a lot of negative discussion; people didn’t really focus on the positive aspects of the park,” Sumpter said.

In June 2005, Brian and Teresa Spencer bought a lot in the park to relocate their business, Wallace Tent and Party Rental, from Trenton. The Spencers have not yet moved their operations to the park but have begun construction on their future business home.

The Spencers deal with the city was to purchase the lot for $50,000, but that number would be cut in half if the business stayed in the park for five years.

“For the cost of these lots, you can really do well as a small business,” said Sumpter, adding that all the necessary infrastructure such as electricity and sewer already is in place. “If they make it for five years, they will keep going.”

On that note, the same five-year discounted offer was extended this week to local developer Vernon Shapazian, who purchased two adjoining lots, and to Michael Dionne, who agreed to buy another.

Shapazian, doing business as LWS Revocable Trust and VES Revocable Trust, plans to construct a speculative building on one of the two lots and then seek a potential tenant.

Dionne will construct a 1,700-square-foot building to house Pro Source Installation, which is expanding and moving from its current home in Trenton.

City councilors discussed the proposed new development in the commerce park at Monday’s council meeting and agreed that if discounts and incentives are working to lure tenants, why not continue extending them?

“If a business comes in and says ‘We’re going to pay $20 an hour with full benefits,’ I’ll give them the land,” City Council Chairman Gary Fortier said.