Mainebiz

V O L . X X X N O. I I I F E B R UA R Y 5 , 2 0 2 4 20 C O M M E R C I A L D E V E L O P M E N T F O C U S e facility is one of the first new plants in the region for quite some time, he says. What's driving the need? More construction and not enough supply. "Customers started calling about their inability to get concrete due to changes in the marketplace," Langille says. "at's when I started looking into where we could build a plant." e goal is to operate summers the first year or two, then winterize the facil- ity for year-round operation. Customers are mainly professional concrete con- tractors. e market is growing in sync with overall development trends. "It looks to me like Ellsworth and the coastal areas have been growing sig- nificantly," Langille says. "We get calls all the time from people looking for concrete, waiting for concrete, not able to get concrete. e market's there." Tenant waitlist Coastal Maine General Contracting Inc. in Ellsworth recently completed the rede- velopments for a new police station at 416 High St. and two commercial buildings at 10 Buttermilk Road and 14 Toothaker Lane. e company's development arm, Gurney Investment Properties, owns the properties and leases to tenants, includ- ing local sausage-maker Colvard & Co. and vacation rental and property man- agement firm Salt Air Properties. "We've got a list of people looking for space and we're working on projects in the pipeline now, either redeveloping property for someone else or developing property ourselves and leasing it to oth- ers," says Matthew Gurney, the compa- ny's president. Gurney saw interest from prospec- tive tenants from the get-to. "At first, we bought 416 High St. with the intent of having our own office there," he says. "Before we moved in, there was so much interest in leasing that space from us that we decided to take it more seriously." Why the interest? "I feel like Ellsworth is and has been a hub for a lot of smaller Downeast communities that use the city for their shopping and for work," Gurney says. "We also have a lot of big businesses here, like Jackson Lab and the hospital, which leads to Ellsworth being a service location where people want to set up a new business." He continued, "e downside is that we have a lot of buildings that are old and need to be renovated. at's where we fit that niche of being able to reno- vate those spaces and make them nicer." Project costs vary from several hundred thousand to nearly a million dollars. Gurney typically looks for tired or unutilized properties. ere are a lot, he says. "We're working on commercial developments now that will put more businesses into Ellsworth over the next year or two," Gurney says. 2021 2022 2023 22 LOCATIONS ACROSS MAINE & NEW HAMPSHIRE 1 - 8 0 0 - H A M M O N D W W W . H A M M O N D L U M B E R . C O M R E A D Y T O P I V O T W H E N E V E R Y O U R J O B D O E S . AUBURN • BANGOR • BAR HARBOR • BELFAST • BELGRADE • BLUE HILL • BOOTHBAY HARBOR • BRUNSWICK • BUCKSPORT • CALAIS • CAMDEN • CHERRYFIELD DAMARISCOTTA • ELLSWORTH • FAIRFIELD • FARMINGTON • GREENVILLE • MACHIAS • PORTLAND • ROCHESTER (NH) • ROCKLAND • SKOWHEGAN ROCHESTER ROCHESTER » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E P ROV I D E D P H O T O / C O A S TA L M A I N E G E N E R A L C O N T R A C T I N G I N C . C O U R T E S Y / C O A S TA L M A I N E G E N E R A L C O N T R A C T I N G I N C . Matthew Gurney, president of Coastal Maine General Contracting Inc., says he saw immediate interest from prospective tenants when he began redeveloping tired or unutilized properties. Coastal Maine General Contracting Inc. and its development arm, Gurney Investment Properties, redeveloped buildings for a police station and for commercial use. We've got a list of people looking for space and we're working on projects in the pipeline now. — Matthew Gurney Coastal Maine General Contracting Inc.

• Cover