October 6 – As Mike Michaud on the site of the old Great Northern Paper Co. in East Millinocket, he sees not only the remains of the economic engine that destroyed the city when it closed a decade ago. He sees a place where the city can ‘take its own destiny into its own hands’.
Revitalizing the defunct mill is the inaugural project for the Maine Redevelopment Land Bank Authority – a new state entity committed to helping communities redevelop abandoned or otherwise unused properties that may be unattractive to private or municipal developers.
Tuck O’Brien, executive director of the state land bank, said the former mill is a great example of the projects the organization hopes to undertake — “properties that used to do a lot of work for their communities and for the state that were no longer working. “
Each project will have different needs, but O’Brien said the redevelopment authority has a “robust toolbox.” It can assist with financing, technical assistance, staffing and consultants to assist with due diligence, title work or grant funding management. It can enter into contracts with public and private entities, issue bonds, manage brownfield funds, provide property settlement services and resolve foreclosure problems.
The Legislature established the land bank in 2022 and formally announced Friday that the mill is its first project.
A ‘ROBUST TOOL BOX’
East Millinocket purchased the factory site in 2020 for $1.45 million, with the help of federal grants. Since then, the East Millinocket Industrial Board, charged with overseeing the mill’s redevelopment, has taken steps to revive the site, which once accounted for 80% of the city’s tax base.
The plant opened in 1906. At its peak, the plant and its larger sister plant in Millinocket employed 4,000 people in what were considered the highest-paying manufacturing jobs in the state. The Great Northern plant in Millinocket closed in 2008 and the East Millinocket plant followed in 2011. Unemployment in the region shot to 22%.
The East Millinocket location briefly reopened in 2011, rehiring approximately 215 employees and injecting some optimism into the community. But the mill closed permanently in 2014.
Ten years later, both mills are showing signs of life again. In Millinocket, the 1,400-acre site is being transformed into a center for the development and production of sustainable products.
The 215-acre site in East Millinocket is now home to a logistics company, and there are plans to open a biorefinery soon. The board is in discussions with other companies, including a solar panel manufacturer, several forestry-related companies and a data center. There are plans for a river walk and a green space. Eventually, officials hope to build housing in the area.
“We are looking at ways in which we can diversify so that we are not all dependent on one sector,” said Michaud, head of the board. He is also a selectman and former congressman from Maine’s 2nd District.
But keeping up the pace of recent years is difficult “with an all-volunteer board and no money,” he said. That’s where the state can hopefully step in.
There are hundreds of buildings in the state in various stages of redevelopment. During a listening tour this summer, O’Brien said he talked to community leaders about buildings they had no idea what to do with and buildings that just needed a little bit of money to move things along.
“East Millinocket was kind of in the middle,” O’Brien said, making it a good fit for the organization’s first venture.
“They are at the stage where they definitely need more professional support to complete some of these projects, so it was a perfect fit for us because they had done a lot of the vision. They had the basics And now it’s a good opportunity for us to come in and help get some of this stuff across the finish line.”
It’s too early to say what specific help East Millinocket will need, but Michaud said the group is “very excited to finally be able to take charge of our own destiny.”
‘PREPARE FOR POSSIBILITY’
The land bank will focus on commercial and large multifamily properties, which is where O’Brien says it can have the most impact.
The approach is “use agnostic,” he said, so while housing will likely play a big role in future redevelopments, the authority is not specifically a housing entity. The goal is to assist with projects that can catalyze additional development.
“Our slogan is ‘prepare for possibility,’ and we’re trying to get the property ready to return to the use that the community and the market deem appropriate for that location,” he said, adding that between 300 and 600 locations are. across the state who could be candidates.
O’Brien hopes the land bank can take on three or four projects this year. No other locations have been announced, but there is potential for the former tannery in Hartland, as well as properties in Van Buren, Madawaska, Kittery, Wiscasset and Fort Fairfield. Not everything will be as far away as East Millinocket.
“Our goal is to help fill gaps in different types of projects at different points in the development lifecycle,” O’Brien said. “There is no one-size-fits-all solution. …If that were the case, we wouldn’t have to exist. There are a lot of people doing really good work, and we don’t want to reinvent it or try to replicate what they do. But there are a lot of gaps between the work that’s being done, and that’s what we’re here to help solve.
Although the state land bank does not plan to target single-family homes, O’Brien acknowledged there are hundreds of homes in Maine that need renovation. One of his tasks as director is to develop a database of those properties. They are simply too widespread to be effectively addressed by the state program.
However, O’Brien said he hopes the state land bank can help municipalities create their own programs focused on single-family homes.
Modeled after SANFORD
O’Brien said he knows of only one other land bank in Maine: the Sanford Land Bank Authority, which was used as a model for the state agency.
Ian Houseal oversaw about 100 hearings on dangerous buildings in the past seven years since Sanford established its land bank authority.
The commission was formed in 2017 to address ongoing problems with the city’s aging housing stock by expediting the transition of abandoned and foreclosed properties back into value-producing real estate, either through rehabilitation or demolition.
Abandoned properties are more than just an eyesore, said Houseal, formerly director of community development in Sanford and now a commissioner on the state board. They create safety problems, depress property values and cost the city money in both maintenance and depreciation.
“Ten years ago, that was so damaging to Sanford,” he said.
Rebecca Lapierre, a member of Sanford’s land bank committee, said the city has seen property values increase since the program’s launch. “We’ve seen improvements in neighborhoods where we have buildings that were no longer habitable that we were able to redevelop,” she said.
The committee has worked with the Sanford Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity and private developers to get homes back on the market.
Lapierre, a real estate agent and developer, bought one of the buildings at auction in 2020. The draw, she said, was gaining access to a distressed property at a low price. The buildings already have a foundation and a skeleton and are already connected to sewerage, water and utilities.
“Then it’s just a matter of fixing whatever else needs to be done,” she said.
The Sanford Land Bank Authority has been on hiatus for much of 2024, but has scheduled a meeting next week.
“I definitely think any kind of land bank authority helps communities,” Lapierre said. “It gives those municipalities an extra push to try to redevelop these properties.”
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