December 21, 2024
Business

Lincoln businesses expanding alongside paper mill’s upgrade

LINCOLN – It only has been on Main Street since February 2005, but Dorie Clark’s enterprise is having growing pains that most businesses would die for – or from.

Business has gotten so good that four to six times a day, workers at Maine Cooking Woods LLC truck product from their pre-production space at West Broadway and River Road to their downtown showroom, Clark said.

“We’re growing rapidly and expanding our marketplace and looking to house all aspects of our operation under one roof for greater efficiency,” Clark, Maine Cooking Woods’ general manager, said Friday. “We’re not backlogged; we’re just growing out of our operation here.”

A maker of flavored woods for barbecues, Maine Cooking Woods, which moved into a space created when Aubuchon Hardware moved into a new store on West Broadway, is not alone. Several businesses are planning expansions or starting construction on new buildings to offset the town’s lack of commercial space, Ruth Birtz, the town’s economic development assistant, said.

“There are a lot of pre-existing businesses that are expanding,” Birtz said Friday. “This is an indication that business is very good. They need more workers, more inventory and more space because the demand is there.”

Yet the space is not, Birtz said. That’s why Mark and Sue Dufresne, owners of Steaks N’Stuff on Mechanic Street, have razed a one-family home and are beginning to build a three- or four-store strip mall on West Broadway near McDonald’s restaurant.

The Dufresnes are assembling their building plans, and an engineering firm is studying how best to use the space, Birtz said. The Dufresnes declined to comment Friday.

The town’s lack of ready-made commercial space means that businesses looking to start or expand have nowhere to go without incurring heavy construction costs, Birtz said. That’s why she believes the strip mall should fit very well into Lincoln’s business community. The Dufresnes might have plans ready for town planning board review at the board’s May 15 meeting.

Other businesses, Birtz said, that have expanded during the last 12 months or are planning to start up over the next year include:

. A veterans’ clinic on River Road near Interstate 95.

. Health Access Network on Main Street, which is planning an addition.

. A proposed senior citizens’ village and town community center intended for West Broadway near River Road and Interstate 95. If it goes as planned, the project would house about 100 senior citizens in a mix of assisted-living apartments and stand-alone housing and would feature a nature walk with golf cart pathways leading to the Penobscot River.

. West Broadway Auto, which has almost moved into its new expanded space along Penobscot Valley Avenue from West Broadway.

. Access Auto, which is moving into West Broadway Auto’s old space.

. U.S. Cellular, which is among three businesses to open in a new building on West Broadway near Maine-ly Rent To Own.

. Gillmour Farm, a restaurant and coffee shop on West Broadway, which is building an addition and has applied for a liquor license.

. Tangles Hair Studio, a salon that moved into a renovated house on West Broadway.

. A farmers market stand on West Broadway whose owner is planning to build a more permanent structure there.

“We also have a lot of people who come in and discuss possibilities,” Birtz said.

Many of these expansions, Birtz said, are probably fueled by the town’s biggest expansion: Lincoln Paper & Tissue LLC’s $45.6 million upgrade that will include a co-generation electrical plant and a new $36 million tissue machine.

The new machine is part of a plan to add 40 full-time jobs to the plant’s 356-member, $21 million payroll and alleviate backlogs on the plant’s two 50-ton-capacity tissue machines. Construction of the new machine is ongoing. Lincoln Paper officials said they expect it to come on line in the fall.

As part of Lincoln Paper’s 20-year tax-increment financing deal, or TIF, the town hopes to use tax-break funds to buy three industrial-sized lots on River Road near the Penobscot River and the municipal airport and create a new industrial park. The TIF agreement is being reviewed by state officials.

Clark said she doesn’t see her business expansion occurring in the immediate future.

“Right now we’re in the beginning phases of figuring out the best way to expand,” she said. “It’s just literally been about three weeks of thinking about this.”


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