WATERVILLE — A crumbling former bakery building is expected to have new life soon as a production site for a new product that will produce fire logs made of hay.

City leaders say they are excited that the long-vacant building will soon return to city tax rolls, providing jobs for area residents.

Vassalboro-based Bragdon Farms has reached a deal to buy the Harris Bakery building on North Street.

The $900,000 potential transition of the property from a deserted graffiti-marred building in the heart of the city to a functioning business was aided by a $300,000 Community Development Block Grant applied for by the city last year.

The work will also be aided with a $160,000 loan from Wiscasset-based Coastal Enterprise Inc., a community development finance institution. The building between Sanger Avenue and North and Harris streets fell into disuse after Harris Baking Co. went out of business in 1998.

The Bragdon project is seen as a type of growth that can pay long-term benefits for Waterville, according to Darryl Sterling, executive director of the Central Maine Growth Council.

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“It takes care of some very blighted property and will turn it into a nice place,” Sterling said. “It’s nice to use the resources that are there and it can be done in a cost-effective way.”

Finalization of the Harris building deal after a 15-year struggle to build interest in the property is the latest success story for abandoned commercial buildings in the city.

It joins ongoing renovation in the Hathaway mill complex and the Loyal Biscuit pet grooming company’s work to upgrade the former Al Corey’s Music Shop on Main Street.

At the height of its operations as a bakery in the early 1950s, Harris employed about 200 and provided baked goods to homes and stores throughout central and northern Maine. It closed in 1994 after ending production of white bread to concentrate on whole-grain products, opened again in 1996 and closed for good two years later. The abandoned building’s decay was added to by an arson fire in August 2009.

The city first discussed the project last summer, when the council agreed to apply for the CDBG. Such grants, from the Department of Economic Development, are for blighted and challenged communites and communities must prove the project getting the money will boost economic growth, among other things.

Once up and running, the company will hire a workforce.

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“We are in schedule to create ten more jobs specifically targeting low to moderate income hires and creating a total dollar impact of more than $200,000,” said Randy Labbee, a spokesman for Bradgon Farm owner Peter Bragdon. The company’s first new hire was Ray Bernier, a business graduate of Thomas College.

While investments such as the Bragdon Farms project will bring new life to old buildings, city leaders say the work of increasing the number of jobs in Waterville takes a wider, coordinated effort.

City Manager Mike Roy said the growth is welcomed, but the city recognizes it will be difficult to “hit a home run” when it comes to creating jobs.

“The biggest thing from our point of view is job growth, so opening new stores and businesses is important as long as it has new jobs,” Roy said. “This project is very important on two fronts, first it can increase job opportunities and secondly it’s an opportunity to keep an existing building in a productive use, so at some point it doesn’t fall into disrepair and end up costing the city.”

The business could mean five to 10 new jobs in Waterville, said Liz Rogers, senior vice president of marketing and communication for CEI.

“This can help both the community and the environment by creating jobs in Waterville and developing property in the downtown are that the city has looked to re-purpose for many years,” Rogers said. “We believe this is a viable business that has the potential to grow.”

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With a growing nucleus of abandoned buildings being turned into productive properties, city officials say they hope to capitalizing the isolated spurts of economic activity in a marketing campaign to position Waterville as a central Maine hub of economic activity. The newly developed consortium, Waterville Creates! will be given the role of creating a marketing campaign for the city.

“We’re working on a more coordinated marketing approach involving a number of different organizations contributing a consistent marketing message,” Roy said of the city’s partnership with Waterville Creates! “We’re hoping to pool these resources and have a coordinated marketing effort aimed at identifying Waterville as a cultural and artistic center.”

Waterville Creates! consists of Common Street Arts, Maine Film Center, Waterville Public Library, Waterville Opera House, Colby College Museum of Art and Waterville Main Street.

At the former bakery building, meanwhile, work will begin soon to get the facility operating.

“Over the next month and a half, we will be assembling a state of the art briquetting plant right here in central Maine,” said a news release from Bragdon Farms. “We hope to have Bragdon Farm hay firelogs on retail shelves as early as the first quarter of 2015.”

Jesse Scardina — 861-9239

jscardina@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @jessescardina


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