MADAWASKA – The Madawaska business community received its biggest commercial boost in years this week with two new stores and nearly 80 jobs.

Today, at 9 a.m., Marden’s Surplus and Salvage Co. is opening its 13th store in Maine at the former Ames shopping center at Madawaska. The store brought 70 to 80 new full- and part-time jobs, according to Bryan Seeley, manager of the company’s Presque Isle store who was working Tuesday at Madawaska.

Last Friday, D and M Plaza at 116 Main St. saw the opening of Plourde’s Harley-Davidson, a clothing and accessories satellite store to Plourde and Plourde Inc., a Caribou Harley-Davidson dealer.

“We have clothing, accessories and custom parts,” Shirley Campagna, manager of the Harley-Davidson outlet said Tuesday. “We have everything but bike sales, but we can help those happen through the Caribou store.”

They had three colorful Harley-Davidson motorcycles on display Tuesday.

The store is filled with the classic black and orange accessories and, of course, the chrome needed to dress up the classic American bike.

The store is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, with extended hours to 8 p.m. on Friday. On Saturdays, it closes at 4 p.m.

The Marden’s store is a completely renovated facility. The plaza was purchased by Paul Daigle of Frenchville earlier this year and is still in the process of total renovations.

Construction crews and store personnel have been working long hours the last two weeks to open the store on time.

“The people here came together very well,” Seeley said Tuesday afternoon. “They’ve done a very good job and it was done very quickly.”

Merchandise was being put on display Tuesday afternoon. Another crew was installing cash registers, and even more people were constructing counters, dressing rooms and cleaning the facility.

The president of Marden’s Surplus and Salvage Co. announced the Madawaska store some three months ago. It was originally scheduled to open in October, but construction setbacks pushed back the opening to Wednesday.

The Madawaska outlet will be the third in Aroostook County, joining stores now located in Presque Isle and Houlton. The store in Presque Isle opened in 2000 and the Houlton store opened in 2003.

When the announcement was made by Harold Marden, president of the 42-year-old Waterville based company, he said they would open as quickly as possible.

The building has about 57,000 square feet. It needed a new roof, new flooring and a complete remake of the interior walls and the front exterior of the building.

Since Ames closed 12 years ago, the building has housed two short-lived paper collection and marketing companies. The building has been empty for some time.

Daigle, president of FND Inc. and owner of the shopping center, had planned to place a manufacturing facility for ambulances in the area several months ago. He is now looking at building on another location.

In the meantime, he is renovating the remaining buildings in the former shopping center. He is adding 8,000 square feet, making it 37,000 square feet, to a mini-mall area that could house five more stores.

Daigle had said the renovation of the plaza was a $1.5 million project. That was assisted with a $400,000 Business Assistance Grant to replace the roof on the facility.

Marden’s purchases and resells overstocks from other companies, closeouts, merchandise from insurance losses and merchandise they receive from salvage deals.

Marden’s was started by Mickey Marden, a postal worker, in 1964.

The company has stores in Presque Isle, Houlton, Calais, Ellsworth, Brewer, Lincoln, Waterville, Lewiston, Gray, Sanford, Biddeford and Portland. They also have three warehouses in Maine.