When Jim Dinkle arrived at the Kennebec Regional Development Authority and FirstPark in 2017, the most common complaint he heard from prospective businesses and partner organizations was that FirstPark communicated poorly.

By the time he retired July 24, he said, FirstPark had built a recognizable brand and had shaken off its unresponsive reputation.

Dinkle said building that communication strategy was his proudest achievement during his eight years as executive director of the 285-acre campus that borders Interstate 95 — even more than selling several more lots in the park.

“We implemented a bimonthly newsletter. We upgraded our website,” Dinkle said. “It was as fundamental as me getting an office cellphone and putting that phone number out there, on my business card and so forth, to let people know I was accessible. At the end of the day, I think not only marketing was a big success, but I think it was just basic communication with our member communities and people that were interested in buying lots.”

FirstPark is a unique organization: Its expenses are supported by annual contributions from 24 central Maine towns from Anson to Gardiner, which also send representatives to the organization’s board, called the general assembly. Those municipalities are then paid back for their investment with a portion of the property tax collected on the park by the town of Oakland.

Member towns have, since FirstPark’s creation in the 1990s, paid in more than they receive in redistributed property taxes, leading some member towns to consider leaving the organization.

But with bonds paid off and more businesses buying empty slots — including eight during Dinkle’s tenure — Oakland’s property tax revenue from FirstPark has increased dramatically. And as the park continues to fill up, tax revenue will continue to increase.

Michelle Flewelling, Fairfield’s town manager and the president of the KRDA General Assembly, said Fairfield received about $2,000 more than it paid in during the last fiscal year.

“While it has taken longer than anyone ever thought that it would back in the early 2000s — because nobody knew that the real estate market was going to bottom out — the thought process is that we will eventually get to the point where it actually is an economic driver for not just the park, but also for all of the surrounding municipalities with the revenue that they receive back for this,” Flewelling said.

Flewelling said it’s a mark of success for Dinkle’s tenure that the park finally reached this milestone — and it’s a mark of success for FirstPark’s long-term model.

Dinkle said FirstPark’s member businesses employ thousands of people, leading to a regionwide economic impact. No official economic impact study was done during Dinkle’s tenure, but he said he’s confident that the park has brought millions of dollars to central Maine.

“The multiplier effect that the businesses in the park have had on suppliers to them, whether that’s office equipment or fuel, the local restaurants that the hundreds of people that work in the park patronize every week day — that has a big impact,” he said. “Those are some of the basic measurables I’ve used.”

Although Dinkle helped sell eight lots during his tenure, including for a commercial solar project and a Maine-based information technology business, he said 10 spaces remain empty. FirstPark’s full self-sufficiency depends on those lots being developed, which he said he hopes to see in the coming years under FirstPark’s next director.

Flewelling said the process to hire that next director is underway. FirstPark’s board plans to finalize a job advertisement in the coming weeks, she said, and the board hopes to find someone who, like Dinkle, prioritizes relationship-building with prospective businesses and FirstPark’s regional economic impact.