Staff Writer
LIMESTONE — The Loring Applied Technology Center has been a place for businesses to grow since it opened in 2001. The center is currently home to four local businesses, and the Loring Development Authority is in the process of filling the remaining vacancies.
Aroostook Republican Photo/Natalie Bazinet
Mark Murchison pauses briefly from constructing a cabinet at the S.W. Collins Co. Mill at Loring.
“The concept behind the Applied Technology Center is to have a place where multiple tenants can share space and can have a portion of the facility dedicated to their use and then share some other facilities,” said LDA President and CEO, Carl Flora, “they call it a business incubator because it creates an environment that is conducive to the development of a business.”
According to Flora, the center provides tenants with shared facilities, such as a conference room, loading dock, break room, and business essentials — telephones, fax and copy machines.
“You can spend a lot of time and money having to provide those things for yourself,” Flora said, “and in the case of our incubator, the equipment is here for the businesses to use. Also, they have their own production suite, which can be between 2,000 and 5,000 square feet of space for whatever their business needs.”
It cost about a million dollars to convert the structure into the accommodating ‘incubator’ that it is today.
“The original idea of it was to take a building that could house multiple relatively small business-type tenants who were breaking into a new field, developing a new line of products, or a new way to market their existing products; the idea was to give businesses an environment where they can grow,” Flora said. “They don’t have to worry about a lot of things; we try to take away as many headaches as possible. They pay one fee which gives them telephones, electricity, and heat, so they don’t have to worry about it,” he added, “we usually work with companies that are in an evolutionary phase of business; we usually look for a more development oriented tenant.”
One of the four businesses currently taking advantage of the opportunities offered at the Applied Technology Center is S.W. Collins Co., which has been at the center for about three years and has five full time employees at the Loring location.
“Though S.W. Collins Co. looked at other places, the financial benefits were one aspect that made it a good fit for us to be at the Applied Technology Center,” said S.W. Collins Co. shop supervisor Lee Bard.
“This has been a good place for us,” Bard added, “whenever issues arise, or if we need specific accommodations for a piece of equipment, they help us meet our accommodations; by doing that, they help us maintain our customer satisfaction.”
Referred to as the S.W. Collins Co. Mill, according to Bard, the location at the center creates custom cabinetry, paneling, countertops (including Corian®), and more for schools, hospitals, banks, and other large-scale projects.
Currently, the mill at the center is working on pieces for courthouse renovations down in Houlton.
“It’s really a win-win situation to be here,” explained Bard, “between how the rental works with heat and electric, it’s cost effective. It’s also a benefit that all our material can be kept inside, rather than being kept in cold storage,” he added.
From creating sweets to creating sawdust, the manufacturing capabilities of the tenants at the center are diverse. According to Flora, they’ve even gone as far as removing the dropped ceilings in some of the units to better meet the needs of their tenants.
Flora seemed optimistic as he talked about the business at the center, including one that is currently working on developing alternative energy.
“Maybe they’ll be big someday, maybe they won’t,” Flora speculated, “but either way, they need a place to start.”
Businesses looking to take residence at the Loring Applied Technology Center are encouraged to contact Carl Flora at the Loring Development Authority. The LDA can be reached at (207) 328-7005.
