Tom Powers of the Presque Isle Industrial Council was the featured speaker at the April meeting of PROBUS.
The industrial park is located near the airport on 450 acres. The park has 60 tenants with about 900 employees. The park was established when Presque Isle Air Force Base closed in 1961. The park is owned by the City of Presque Isle and used vacant base buildings at the start but has built about 25 additional structures.
Powers made the point that the buildings meet northern Maine stress levels with 6-foot-deep frost walls and snow-load-bearing roofs that are much stronger but consequently more expensive than similar sized industrial buildings in competing southern U.S. areas.
The park uses employee competence and superior transportation as selling points. Companies in the park are financially stable and pay the city rent with long-term contracts.
Unlike most other industrial parks in Maine, the park is served by a railroad, an airport, and Maine’s largest trucking firm as well as Northern Maine Community College. Powers stressed the importance of a trained and skilled workforce in attracting new employers.
The Industrial Park has recently completed two new buildings for Coca Cola and Frito Lay, which were built to meet their requirements, and will soon add another to meet the expansion of VALT Enterprizes Inc.
The next meeting of PROBUS will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, May, 15, at the Keagan Room, Reed Hall, Northern Maine Community College. Alana Margeson, provost and vice president of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, will speak. Visitors are welcome.
