BANGOR – Regional economic development – more specifically, the potential for developing joint business park ventures – was among the topics city councilors explored Monday during a meeting of their strategic issues committee.

According to Robert Baldacci, an area developer and president of the Bangor Region Development Alliance, or BRDA, efforts to create a regional park in this area are just getting underway. While the land is located in Orono, the venture is expected to involve a partnership that includes the town of Orono, the University of Maine and the Penobscot Indian Nation. Others, including the city of Bangor, are being tapped to participate.

As a framework for Monday’s discussion, councilors heard presentations on what two other regions – one in Maine and the other in the nation’s southwest – have done to grow their economies and attract jobs in their respective areas.

In his presentation, Craig Nelson, chairman of First Park in Fairfield, described how 24 communities in Kennebec and Somerset counties joined forces to establish a business and technology park on a 285-acre parcel just off Interstate 95 in Oakland.

While far from finished, FirstPark is expected to bring up to 3,000 new jobs to the area, which, like this part of the state, has lost hundreds of jobs to mill closures and the departure of traditional jobs to countries where labor is cheaper.

FirstPark is the first project of the Kennebec Regional Development Authority, established by the Maine Legislature in 1998 through the efforts of “The People of the Kennebec,” a consortium of civic and community leaders including the Augusta and Waterville area Chambers of Commerce, the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments, local businesses, banks, hospitals and educational institutions.

The park offers 22 building sites ranging from about 4 acres to 14 acres supported by state-of-the-art infrastructure.

A factor that sets FirstPark apart from most others is that its partner municipalities share costs in proportion to their total valuation, noted Nelson.

Les Stevens, an economic developer working with the Bangor Region Development Alliance and the Maine Manufacturing Extension Partnership, described what he learned during a visit with the leaders of the Southern Arizona Industry and Aerospace Alliance.

The alliance, commonly known as Arizona’s aerospace cluster, is headquartered in Tucson. Stevens said the alliance has carved a market niche for itself largely through the strategic timing and sheer determination of Sally Garza Fernandez, its president.

According to Stevens, Fernandez raised $7 million in federal funds to get the project off the ground and led a unique collaborative economic development approach centered largely on the nation’s post-Sept. 11 national security needs.

Stevens was among those who believed the concept could work here if individual communities could get beyond their provincialism. The key to that, he said, “is self-interest. That’s the whole idea. Everyone gets back more than they put in and [accomplishes] more than they can get done [individually].”

Baldacci agreed. “It’s all about synergy. We’re so much stronger when we work together than when we work on our own.”