BRUNSWICK

Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Steve Levesque outlined substantial growth at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station at Tuesday’s MRRA board of trustees meeting.

Levesque said that although the presence of perfluorinated chemicals is delaying some lease and transfer opportunities, the Navy has to date transferred about 1,761 acres of the approximately 2,100 acres MRRA is slated to receive.

Recently, the Navy allowed the lease of four buildings along Neptune Drive. Levesque said the leases will carry with them an option to purchase once the Navy has fully transferred them.

Those buildings include the former hobby shop, which will be leased to the Priority Group, the former thrift store and Sea Cadet building, which will be occupied by Mid-coast Housing, and the former galley.

Levesque said public benefit conveyances of land and buildings have either been completed or are underway for Southern Maine Community College, Bowdoin College, the town of Brunswick and Family Focus.

At just over a year old, TechPlace has also experienced growth, as 28 companies now occupy over half of the non-common spaces. Levesque said by this fall he hopes to open up another 25,000 square feet of industrial space adjacent to Hangar 4.

“We are running out of office space to where we’re needing to maybe do some reconfiguration,” Levesque said. He said MRRA will apply for a grant to build on some additional spaces up on the mezzanine, adding around 3,000 square feet.

“But that’s a healthy problem to have,” Levesque said.

With the help of a $299,000 grant from the Maine Technology Institute, MRRA has completed construction of the shared production spaces of techworks and bio-works within Tech- Place.

Levesque said that with the passage of the new HubZone legislation, MRRA plans to work with the Small Business Administration and the Procurement Technical Assistance center to educate businesses in terms of what that legislation means for them in the procurement of federal con- tracts. A seminar is planned for April 1 in the MRRA community room with Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, and Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, and Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine.

In Topsham at the former Navy Annex, MRRA is working with SAD 75 as well as Affordable Mid Coast Housing to transfer some open spaces to them, as well as working with the Maine Historic Preservation office and town of Topsham in the demolition of the former Army Reserve facility.

Overall, Levesque reported more than 455,741 square feet under lease to more than 30 tenants and more than 88 entities doing business on the former base.

In all, these businesses employ about 675 full-time and 246 part-time staff, not including an anticipated 75 L.L. Bean jobs, 200 additional positions at SaviLinx and 500 new jobs at Wayfair. With new businesses in place and additional positions filled, the number of people working at Brunswick Landing will climb to more than 1,600.

“We’re going to have, probably by the end of the summer, 1,700 people working on the property,” Levesque said.

According to Levesque, more than 8,000 people are drawn into Brunswick daily, pulling in a workforce from Portland, Lewiston Auburn and Augusta. A chart MRRA provided showed projected jobs and actual job growth between April 2011 and February 2016, with actual job growth more than double projections.

Levesque said aggressive marketing by MRRA has paid off and the recent successes with SaviLinx and Wayfair has drawn even more inquiries. MRRA continues to attend trade shows, attracting not only U.S. companies but investments from European and Canadian companies.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com

The numbers

• OVERALL, MORE THAN 455,741 square feet is under lease to more than 30 tenants and more than 88 entities doing business on the former base.

• IN ALL, these businesses employ about 675 full-time and 246 part-time staff, not including an anticipated 75 L.L. Bean jobs, 200 additional positions at SaviLinx and 500 new jobs at Wayfair.