Mainebiz

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 O C T O B E R 1 6 , 2 0 1 7 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 some of the best from our online-only offerings: Featured @ Mainebiz.biz Bisaillon-Cary launches trade consultancy Four months after leaving her post as president of Maine International Trade Center, Janine Bisaillon-Cary is offering her con- sulting expertise to small and medium-sized Maine businesses with global ambitions. She and her associates in the new Montserrat Group will help craft strategies for companies in sectors such as food and advanced manufacturing with an inter- est in tapping foreign markets. Find out more at mainebiz.biz/montserratgroup $1M boost for Maine's local food economy Maine is getting more than $1 mil- lion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support expanding the state's local food economy. Half of that will go to Greater Portland Council of Governments for its "Scaling for Growth in the Portland Foodshed" project to address a lack of food-processing infra- structure and an inefficient distribution network. Find out more at mainebiz.biz/localfoodgrants L.L.Bean hit with lawsuit L.L.Bean's new "Be An Outsider" branding cam- paign faces a legal challenge from a Salt Lake City clothing company claiming it's owned trademark rights for "The Outsider" since June 2015. KÜHL, a privately held outdoor apparel company with $200 million in retail sales in the United States, asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah Central Division to require L.L.Bean to stop its campaign, as well as pay damages and triple whatever profits it might have received during its campaign. Find out more at mainebiz.biz/outsider bernsteinshur.com Be smart. BE SHUR. When you need a lawyer who thinks like an executive and speaks like a human. From the Editor M ainebiz's "On the Road" events are a great way for the staff here to get a feel for what's going on around the state. Every year, we visit six places in Maine, literally, as it's said, from Kittery to Fort Kent. e events include networking, but also an invitation-only roundtable of local leaders. In three and a half years at Mainebiz, I have sat in 22 such roundtables. is year we've been in Portland, Norway, Boothbay, Sanford and, most recently, Bar Harbor. Lewiston will be Oct. 26. is year, the overriding theme of the roundtable discussions has been the shortage of qualifi ed workers. In Norway, the owner of Norway Brewing lamented that of a half dozen interviews he had lined up, just two people actually showed up. In Sanford, business owners talked about the diffi culty of attracting workers when you're not on the Maine Turnpike corridor. On the fl ip side, Sanford residents are a leading feeder for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workforce. No matter where you are, people talk about the need for aff ordable housing. It's a big topic in southern Maine, as market rate houses and, um, jumbo-market rate houses go up at a blistering rate. In the areas around Boothbay and Bar Harbor, the lack of aff ordable housing is an even greater pressure. Boothbay, down a long peninsula, has an economy driven by tourism — restaurants, inns and B&Bs, Airbnb, boat excursions and so on. Bar Harbor has an even greater need for seasonal help, with 3.3 million visitors a year drawn to Acadia National Park and another 124,000 cruise ship passengers. e housing shortage on Mount Desert Island, where Bar Harbor is the hub of activity, is exacerbated by several factors. ere's no development on the national park grounds, including more than 30,000 acres on MDI. ere are a large number of seasonal houses, used for a few weeks or months of the year. Many of the seasonal places that were once off ered for off - season rentals are now commanding more money on Airbnb, which has some 900 listings on MDI. What few houses are available on the island are unable to handle year-round workers from Jackson Lab, Mount Desert Island Biological Labs, College of the Atlantic and Mount Desert Island Hospital, among other institutions. ere are 1,867 housing units in Bar Harbor, according to the U.S. Census. Bar Harbor itself has a population of 5,335, which swells to many times that in the summer. It's not hard to see that — if Bar Harbor's median household income is $42,117 and the median housing value is $305,700, according to the U.S. Census — there's a disconnect there. While seasonal workers may not mind bunking in a spare room, many year-round workers, including those with families, are priced off the island. e farther down the income scale you are, the farther away you're likely to live. It's common to hear of people commuting from Gouldsboro (an hour), Bucksport (an hour and 10 minutes) and Bangor (an hour and 20 minutes). Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz Worker shortage and lack of affordable housing go hand in hand No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, No matter where you are, people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for people talk about the need for affordable housing. It's a big topic in southern Maine, as market rate houses and, um, jumbo-market rate houses go up at a blistering rate.

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