WINDHAM – After years of neglect, the former Heritage Metalcraft building across from the Windham Public Safety Building on Route 202 is being transformed into a commercial enterprise.

Previous owner Jay Hackett, who operates Windham Rental, cleaned up the interior and exterior of the former metal foundry during the past two years. In the process, he removed trailers filled with trash as well as toxic metal slag strewn about the property.

Hackett also worked with town leaders to create a contract zone that allows commercial activity in what is otherwise a farm residential zone. Hackett’s work has paid off with the recent sale to Bob Maurais, another Windham resident, who is busy renovating the building, which operated as a foundry until the early 2000s and has been empty since.

Maurais plans to move his Southern Maine Renewable Fuels business, located in the former Outpost building near the Route 302 rotary, into the building by early next year.

Maurais, a retired industrial arts teacher at Yarmouth High School, is in the midst of a four-month renovation of the 40-by-120-foot structure and hopes to open early next year. While Hackett removed toxic waste and four dumpsters full of trash from inside the building, Maurais is dealing with 40 years of creosote and ash buildup, which blackened the interior roof trusses and walls.

“As we were tearing this down we were just amazed that this building didn’t burn down,” Maurais said. “There were so many charred timbers. It was just the grace of God that the thing didn’t go up in flames.”

Maurais and his crew has been doing much of the rehab work themselves in order to save in overall restoration costs. He is planning to raise the height of the walls from 8 feet to 14 feet and replace the pitched roof using new trusses.

A third of the space will be used for an office and the remaining area will serve as a showroom for the various pellet and compressed biobrick products. There will also be warehousing space. Company trucks, which deliver the product to homes, will be parked in the large lot on the Route 202 side of the building.

Maurais, a longtime Windham resident, is excited about his business prospects and proud of turning a blighted building into a usable commercial venture.

“Driving into Windham from the Gorham area, this is one of the first buildings that welcomes you to Windham,” Maurais said. “And for many years it’s really been an eyesore. So, I think it’s going to catch the attention of many, many people. When this is completed, people are going to turn and say, ‘Wow,’ It’s going to look that good.”

Hackett, who visits Maurais on site at least twice a week, still feels invested in the outcome. He sold the building and 2-acre property to Maurais for $150,000 two months ago. He is also excited for Maurais and sees the renovation as a success.

“I went through a lot of the town stuff, and I had to clean up the environmental issues,” Hackett said. “We had to remove some soils and stuff, and I did all that. So I’m definitely happy. They’re the perfect end-user for that, and I think it’s going to be great.”

Hackett was aided by the town of Windham in the assessment phase of the cleanup. The town used money from a $200,000 federal Brownfields grant, which it is using to identify different toxic dumps in town. Some of the money was used, for example, to map the location of toxic materials in and around Keddy Mill in South Windham last year. While the town paid a consultant to identify where the slag had been deposited at Heritage Metalcraft, Hackett had to pay to remove it.

Tom Bartell, Windham’s economic development director, helped Hackett through the cleanup process and said it’s a good example of how the program can help owners rehabilitate toxic properties.

“I think it’s great. It’s exactly what the Brownfields program is for,” Bartell said. “And the work that the Town Council did for the contract zoning, everything is coming together. It’s the way it is supposed to happen.”

After cleaning the property and securing the contract zoning designation, Hackett abandoned his original plan to move his girlfriend’s wholesale yarn business into the space. Initial verbal estimates to rehab the building when he purchased the former foundry in October 2010 turned out to be 70 percent lower than final written estimates, he said. That and a sluggish economy convinced him to try to sell the property.

“We were a little hesitant and decided to put it up for sale to see what would happen, and these guys came along and they’re the perfect tenants,” Hackett said. “So this is nothing but a success story. It’s going to help everybody.”

Hackett sees Windham taxpayers also benefiting.

“The [former owners] were three or four years behind in paying taxes. Now you’ve got a piece of property that is back on the tax rolls, since we’ve been paying taxes and [Maurais] is going to be paying taxes,” Hackett said. “And when they get done with it, it’s going to be a $300,000 building so it’s going to be paying more taxes. The town keeps talking about having a mix between residential and commercial so it’s going to help that commercial mix.”

A Windham business owner, Bob Maurais, is in the process of rehabbing the former Heritage Metalcraft building on Route 202 in preparation for opening a Southern Maine Renewable Fuels retail store and warehouse at the site. (Staff photos ?by John Balentine)
Bob Maurais of Windham