PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Every building in the city’s industrial park has been leased, along with the largest amount of land leased in the park’s history. Those were some of the highlights of the Presque Isle Industrial Council’s annual report presented last week.
The Industrial Council oversees the maintenance and improvements of the grounds and the buildings in the 400-acre Skyway Industrial Park which contains over $50 million of the city’s assets. The park contains over 60 businesses with a diverse list of tenants including construction companies, medical supply company Rotech, and Maine-based space company VALT Enterprises, Inc. to name a few.
Skyway Industrial Park produced approximately $1 million in municipal revenue last year with seasonal storage accounting for 10 percent of the total, which is $114,646 in income from 112 tenants. The revenue offset $420,000 for operating expenses and $528,000 for the park’s debt service.
“In 2023, the [Skyway Industrial] Park’s operation was 100 percent self-sufficient and we are pretty proud of that fact,” said Tom Powers, executive director for the Industrial Council, during the annual report presentation at last week’s City Council meeting.
A large portion of the Industrial Council’s funds—which are generated through lease payments made by tenants of the industrial park to the Industrial Council—goes toward building upgrades and modernization of the city’s existing assets.
One of the projects completed in 2023 was the new pavement and sidewalk installed over last summer on Central Drive at the Industrial Park’s entrance in cooperation with the city’s Public Works Department. The Industrial Council worked on the exterior of the new F.W. Webb building, which broke ground last spring.
The assessed value of the buildings worked on in the Skyway Industrial Park are between $12 million and $14 million. One of the buildings worked on in 2023 was a new 11,400-foot spec building to finalize a lease for a national food chain.
Powers declined to say which national food chain due to ongoing negotiations.
Presque Isle sold the 7.5-acres of the land to F.W. Webb for an undisclosed sum. The new 45,000 square foot F.W. Webb building cost $5.5 million to build in 2023 with the doors expected to open this year.
A 1,700-foot, $500,000 rail spur was started and completed in 2023. It was the third rail spur done in five years, Powers said. The funding was done through outside grants called the Intermodal Rail Access Proposal that was submitted on October 3, 2022.
Additional rent income from the railway system in the Skyway Industrial Park is over $50,000 that goes into a reserve account for the Industrial Council’s annual insurance maintenance costs.
“Our next challenge for 2024 is to find that next project that will best benefit Aroostook County,” Powers said.
