Mainebiz

July 9, 2018

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V I E W P O I N T S W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 3 J U LY 9 , 2 0 1 8 Featured @ Mainebiz.biz For a daily digest of Maine's top business news, sign up for the Mainebiz Daily Report at mainebiz.biz/enews Get Maine's business news daily at mainebiz.biz and on Twitter (@Mainebiz). Below is our top content from the weeks of June 19 – July 1. From the Editor M aureen Milliken, a staff writer at Mainebiz, writes about planned redevelopment of parts of the former Nasson College campus (see Page 18). As Maureen reports, Nasson's closure in 1983 was part of a one-two economic punch that aff ected Sanford and Springvale for years to come. Maureen is a seasoned reporter and editor, but she was a cub reporter when she was sent out to cover the Nasson story in 1983. Here is an account of that time, in her words: I began my reporting career in the Sanford bureau of the Biddeford Journal-Tribune on May , , days after Nasson College in Springvale closed. It was quite a story for a rookie reporter to get thrown into — a college in the heart of a village closing just a few years after the village itself was decimated by urban renewal. One chapter of what came next, though, I didn't get to cover. It's probably the most fascinating chap- ter of the history of the campus, which is now almost fully redeveloped years later. For years after the college closed, it was the stage for a constant struggle between Massachusetts businessman Edward P. Mattar III, who initially promised to open a new college on the site in . He did, more or less, but it never had more than a couple dozen students or used more than one or two buildings and zzled out. What followed were legal battles and ugliness that included things like Mattar dumping piles of manure on the Main Street lawn of the campus, cutting down shrubbery and painting at least one one building red, white and blue. He also kept buildings vacant and unmaintained, and they crumbled. ings nally came to a head in , after sev- eral of the buildings seized by the state Department of Education from Mattar in went up to auc- tion, but Mattar secretly bought them back using a proxy. In the legal hurricane that followed even the state's congressional delegation got involved, and Mattar's involvement ended in . He died in November when he jumped from his th oor apartment in Colorado, shortly before he was to face sentencing for a conviction on multiple fraud and other charges in a Denver case. For more on the history of the college in the years after it closed, "College for Sale," by alumnus Richard Schneider, is an excellent source. — Maureen Milliken, sta writer Mainebiz wins two awards for editorial content Mainebiz won a silver award and a bronze award in the Alliance of Area Business Publishers' annual editorial excel- lence competition, which included 484 entries from 37 publications. e awards were presented at AABP's annual summer conference June 23 in Washington, D.C. Mainebiz received the silver award for "best ancillary publication" in the small publication cat- egory for "Fact Book: Doing Business in Maine." e judges commented: "Mainebiz makes itself the authority on doing business in Maine. e volume of statistical information and the amount of eff ort that went into this publication are incredible. ere is a mix of visuals, with strong graphics, typography and photographs. e publication is also com- mended for fi nding diverse subjects." e bronze award for "best feature layout: newspa- per" was awarded for the Mainebiz 2017 Next Award issue, which featured profi les of 13 visionary business leaders who are moving Maine's economy forward. Mainebiz's sister publications, the Hartford Business Journal and Worcester Business Journal, combined to win nine AABP awards. Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz A Mainebiz reporter's memories of Nasson College 1. Iconic Yarmouth seafood market finds new owners 2. Family farm in Houlton honored by Maine Potato Board 3. L.L.Bean pop-up for outdoor coworking space launches in NYC 4. Brew pub and restaurant set to open in Yarmouth 5. Optimism over Waterville's direction spurs purchase of historic Main Street block 6. Children's Museum & Theatre of Maine puts its building on the market 7. LePage's refusal to OK $117M in bonds puts 100s of projects at risk 8. MDOT 'ready to dig in' on building freezer warehouse without Americold 9. $5.4 million Yarmouth commercial sale biggest spark in hot market 10. Falmouth Center proposal tests town's commercial goals P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y B E R K S H I R E H AT H AWAY H O M E S E R V I C E S N O R T H E A S T R E A L E S TAT E 1 bernsteinshur.com Be smart. BE SHUR. When you need a lawyer who thinks like an executive and speaks like a human.

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