BRUNSWICK
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority can borrow up to $500,000 to offer as incentives to potential or existing tenants.
Auburn-based Mechanics Savings Bank announced its financial partnership with MRRA on Wednesday. The bank will provide a flexible line of credit allowing MRRA “to leverage its own funds to lend to prospective and current tenants of Brunswick Landing and the Topsham Commerce Park,” bank officials said.
Jeffrey Jordan, MRRA’s deputy director, said the bank is charging MRRA prime rate — currently 3.25 percent — plus 1 percent.
Jordan said MRRA will charge tenants 5 percent — less than some bank rates, but enough to cover its own expenses.
“The spread of 0.75 percent is to build the portfolio, so we can grow the loan,” he said.
The balancing act will be charging less than bank rates to be the tenants’ lender, but not so little that MRRA won’t make a profit — however slight — off the transaction.
“We’ll be paying off the balances as the tenants pay us, then reloaning the money to tenants,” Jordan said.
There are no tenants immediately in line for a loan, he said.
With three branches, Mechanics Savings Bank employs 75 with total assets of $338.3 million, according to a Southern Midcoast Chamber of Commerce profile.
The bank opened a full-service office in March at Maine Street Station in Brunswick, “staffed by five local individuals who have been involved in the business community in the region for years and who understand the importance of MRRA having success in its redevelopment mission,” bank President Richard Vail said in a news release.
“When Steve Levesque approached us about being creative in structuring a loan, I knew we had to respond,” said Earle Harvey, senior vice president of Mechanics and the current board chairman of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber. “The successful redevelopment of Brunswick Landing and the Topsham Commerce Park should be the top economic development priority of this region, without question.”
MRRA said it currently has 24 businesses at Brunswick Landing.
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