Aquaculture park planned at Schoodic New facility could house 15 small businesses in former Navy buildings

GOULDSBORO – It has been five years since a former U.S. Navy base closed on the eastern tip of the Schoodic Peninsula.

The departure left buildings empty. It eliminated hundreds of jobs. Like air from a balloon, the closure drained life from the coastal economy.

A portion of the former Navy property immediately became part of Acadia National Park while another 400 acres were turned over to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

A 40-acre parcel in the Gouldsboro village of Corea that once served as the Navy’s communications center

was offered to the state after the town turned it down.

But while that site sat empty, financial partners have been working behind the scenes, tirelessly trying to come up with a redevelopment plan.

This week, those partners announced plans for the Gulf of Maine Aquaculture Business Park.

If successful, the development could accommodate up to 15 small businesses, create much-needed jobs in eastern Hancock County and reinflate an economy hampered by migration.

“We’ve been working at this for almost seven years now,” John Holden, director of business services for Eastern Maine Development Corp., said Thursday. “It took some creative planning and some investment on the state’s part, but we were able to secure the funding.”

Acadia Capital Group, a nonprofit arm of EMDC, now owns the 40-acre site in Corea. On the land are two buildings, one 40,000 square feet, the other 28,800 square feet, which the Navy used for classified communications operations.

Those buildings will be the foundation for the new business park specifically designed for land-based commercial aquaculture activities, such as fish farming.

Among the funds that have been secured for the project: $400,000 from the Maine Community Development Block Grant program; $200,000 from the Maine Technology Institute; and $73,516 from the USDA rural development office.

Members of Maine’s congressional delegation released a joint statement commending the project.

“With the outstanding help of the University of Maine, Eastern Maine Development Corp., Acadia Capital Corp. and the funding partners, the use of this property to support small sustainable aquaculture businesses and create new jobs Down East is becoming a reality,” said the statement from Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud. “We will continue to work together to support the conversion of this former military property.”

Holden said as many as four firms have expressed interest, but the park will have at least one tenant when it opens sometime next year.

Maine Halibut Farms, which has been growing halibut since 2000 at the University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture in nearby Franklin, has an option for 7.6 acres on the Corea site.

Holden said bidding for the project would begin this fall or next spring.

“Numbers are all speculative at this point, but it could create at least 25 jobs,” he said.

The Gouldsboro Board of Selectmen was scheduled to hear an update on the project Thursday evening. Holden said local officials have been supportive so far.