FREEPORT
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority will conduct its annual board meeting Wednesday, with discussion focused on new businesses and marketing strategies to continue to boost development in the area.
Quarterly financial reports and MRRA Executive Director Steve Levesque’s report will be reviewed. To date, $350 million in private and public money has been invested into properties at Brunswick Landing, according to Levesque’s report. Property lease and sale activity continues to be strong at Brunswick Landing and Topsham Commerce Park, with 466,000 square feet of space leased to 60 businesses.
More than 1,000 people are employed fulltime by the businesses, and nearly 300 are employed part-time from activity at the base and in the Topsham location, the report stated.
With current land conveyed by the Navy to MRRA, the authority now owns 1,230 acres of land and 780,000 square feet of building space. Four hundred acres have been sold — as well as 45 buildings — to other entities, including 400 housing units left over from the former Navy base.
Those units are planned to be sold by the new owner, Brunswick Landing Venture LLC, which purchased the properties in late June from Midcoast Affordable Housing. Four hundred additional housing units are expected to be built, per town approval and as the market dictates. Those homes are expected to be rented by the company, the report said.
Other developments expected to increase activity at the former base include the building of a connector road from Admiral Fitch Drive and Route 24, which is part of the reuse plan.
Levesque said MRRA is focused on attracting aerospace and cyber security industries as “best fit” opportunities to occupy remaining buildings at the landing. In addition to marketing itself as an attractive location for businesses within the United States, MRRA is attending international trade shows, and has hosted visits from foreign companies as a result of those shows, the report stated.
The meeting is slated for 2:30 p.m. at the Old Town Hall in Freeport. A closed-door meeting concerning property disposition matters will take place after the regular meeting session ends.
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