Mainebiz

V O L . X X V N O. X I M AY 2 7 , 2 0 1 9 24 L E W I S T O N / A U B U R N & C E N T R A L M A I N E F O C U S » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E Edible insect startup to raise up to $2M in farm financing B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r E ntosense, an edible insect startup in Lewiston, began farming crickets this past winter to eventu- ally replace outsourcing. Owners plan to raise $1 mil- lion to $2 million this summer to pay for a 10,000- to 20,000-square-foot cricket farm. Co-founders and siblings Bill Broadbent and Susan Broadbent opened a related firm, EntoMarket, in 2015 as an online edible insect marketplace — and crickets lead the menu of options, they say, sprin- kled on omelettes and salads. Its Mini-Kickers Flavored Crickets — which come in flavors like Indian curry, lemon meringue and Mexican mole — are sold through a network of 30 independent sales reps nationwide. ey're available at stores like Jungle Jim's International Markets, Concord (N.H.) Food Coop and Kittery Trading Post. Entosense supplies a variety of edible insects. at includes seasoned grasshoppers from Mexico known as chapulines. Entosense supplies chapulines to customers such as celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team, the Smithsonian Institution and theme parks SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. Bill Broadbent told Mainebiz that he and Susan worked the first three years out of a barn attached to his house in Auburn. In 2018, they received financing from a private investor to expand, and moved into a space of just under 6,000 square feet in the Hill Mill in Lewiston, across from Bates Mill. e company now sells 100 pounds per week of its top-sellers, crickets and chapulines. Its next two top sellers are black ants and scorpions, but the sales numbers are substantially lower, Broadbent said. ey sell particularly well in the Rocky Mountain states and across the south, he added. Broadbent also said that cricket farming is easy, and involves feeding the crickets with organic chicken feed and water. Once they mature, their legs and wings are removed to make them more palatable, he said. More work ahead at Lewiston's Bates Mill B y R e n e e C o r d e s T hough it's come a long way already, the rede- velopment of Lewiston's Bates Mill Complex is still a work in progress. A former textile factory, its current tenants include Fishbones Grill, TD Banknorth and Grand Rounds, a San Francisco-based health-technology startup that expanded to Lewiston in 2017. A total of more than 2,000 people work inside the eight- building complex, bringing new life to downtown. "When I was growing up," developer Tom Platz told Mainebiz, "Lewiston-Auburn was the business and retail hub of Maine, even before Portland was really developed. All these cities suffered, but we are probably halfway through a resurgence, and people are starting to move back." While some refurbished buildings are fully occu- pied, others are not quite there yet, with parts of Building 1 currently under construction. Platz said the aim is to finish the fourth floor in late 2019 and the fifth floor in early 2020, totaling 86,450 square feet combined. Mill No. 5 is a longer-term project after the city gave Platz until 2021 to pull off the redevelopment of the 350,000-square foot building, the largest of the eight on the site. ough he has the right to buy the building for a symbolic $1, the city left open the possibility for another developer to take over the project in the third year. Platz told Mainebiz he's in talks with at least three potential tenants for Mill No. 5 and hopes to make progress later this year, more than two decades after his firm began working with the city and Bates Mill Development Co. LLC in 1997. "We saw incredible historic buildings that were essentially in good structural shape," he said. "We felt that bringing them back to life was an oppor- tunity to speak to our history while upgrading and bringing in new business." Daily regional bus route gets rolling B y M a u r e e n M i l l i k e n A daily bus route between Lewiston-Auburn and Farmington launched this month as part of a renewed statewide effort to improve access to public transportation. e Western Maine Transportation service, which runs Monday through Friday, was upgraded from pilot status on May 1. It had been called a top priority in a 2017 area transportation plan. While a primary goal is to enable residents of upper Androscoggin and Franklin counties to get to jobs in Lewiston-Auburn, it's actually much more than that, according to Sandy Buchanan, general man- ager of the Auburn-based transit service. "It connects parts of the more rural areas to the urban center," Buchanan said. "It's a great opportu- nity for everybody." She said residents are used to calling up for bus pickup requests, and that the area hasn't had standard busing in decades. Connecting workers to jobs is one of the new route's main benefits, especially after Barclayscard closed its Wilton call center in February and with many people in rural Franklin County without reliable transportation to get to call-center and other customer-service jobs. e route "was one of the top ones on our priority list, but it became even more important when Barclays closed in Wilton," Buchanan said. After more than 200 people lost their jobs, "it was an opportunity for people who were displaced to get an equivalent job, without the additional cost of buying a car, or buy- ing a second car." Craig Zurhorst, community relations manager at the transit service, said locals are warming to the idea that they don't have to get on a bus in Lewiston or Auburn and take it all the way to Farmington, or vice versa. "ey can get off in Turner," he said. "ey can get on it Turner, or anywhere on the route. People are beginning to realize that." P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y E N T O S E N S E P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY P H O T O / M A U R E E N M I L L I K E N A Western Maine Transportation Greenline bus makes a stop at the Auburn Great Falls bus depot. The line runs from Farmington to Lewiston-Auburn Monday through Friday. It connects parts of the more rural areas to the urban center. — Sandy Buchanan Western Maine Transportation Some 2,000 people work in the Bates Mill Complex in Lewiston — and the complex has room for more.

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