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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 11 N OV E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7 Rockland settles tax dispute with Ocean State Job Lot Rockland city councilors unanimously approved a settlement agreement with Ocean State Job Lot to reduce the city's valuation on the close- out-sale retailer's Route 1 property. e Bangor Daily News reported that the agreement settles a two-year legal battle between the city and the Rhode Island-based retailer. Under the agreement, the city will reduce the assessed value of Ocean State Job Lot's Rockland property from its cur- rent $5.89 million valuation to $4.38 million. e retailer had argued its valuation should be $3.12 million, the price it paid when it bought the prop- erty from Wal-Mart in January 2015, the newspaper reported. e city also agreed to pay back about $100,200 in taxes paid by the retailer. City Manager Tom Luttrell told city coun- cilors the agreement would spare the city paying "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in legal costs on further liti- gation that might not end up in the city's favor, the newspaper reported. goodwillnne.org/cleaning CLEAN STARTS HERE. For more information, referrals, or a free estimate call (844) 743-5540 With expansion nearing completion, ImmuCell girds for FDA vetting B y m a i n e b i z s t a f f I mmuCell Corp., a publicly traded animal health company, is gearing up for more growth with a new, $20.8 million Portland production site. The site, at 33 Caddie Lane in Portland, will be used to make an antimicrobial substance seen as having promising potential for treating mastitis in dairy cows. "This is a signifi cant milestone on a project worth over $20 million," Michael F. Brigham, president and CEO, said in a news release. "We are right on the planned timeline and within a few percentage points of the dollar budget. We are proud to be bringing a unique, FDA-registered drug establishment to the state of Maine." Financing for the project was attained through TD Bank, along with the company's own cash fl ow and reserves. In its quarterly fi ling with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ImmuCell reported: "The $20,803,000 invest- ment we are making in a Nisin production facility is being funded from available cash and bank debt, together with cash fl ows from ongoing operations. As we complete the investment in our Nisin production facility and draw down the remaining bank debt that is available to us, we are reduc- ing our cash reserves to a lower than normal level. We are going to be reliant on positive cash fl ows during our peak selling season (fi rst quarter) to begin to re-build these cash reserves. Based on our best estimates and projections, we believe that we have suffi cient capital resources to continue operations for at least twelve months." Elsewhere in the fi ling, ImmuCell reported that it had cash and cash equivalents of $2.3 million at Sept. 30, down from $5.15 million at Dec. 31, 2016. ImmuCell reported liabilities of $9.335 million at Sept. 30, up from $4.975 million at Dec. 31, 2016. Nisin, the active ingredient to be produced in the new facility, is seen as having strong potential as a treatment for mastitis, the most signifi cant cause of economic loss in the dairy industry. ImmuCell expects equipment installation to be completed by the end of the year, which will be followed by development of commercial-scale process validation samples that will be submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the middle of 2018. The projected timeline for FDA approval anticipates FDA approval by the end of 2019, which would be followed by a launch of the product in the dairy industry marketplace. ImmuCell Corp. (Nasdaq: ICCC) has developed products that provide signifi cant, immediate immunity to newborn dairy and beef livestock, it says. In the quarter ended Sept. 30, ImmuCell recorded a net loss of $339,346, or 7 cents a share, compared to a profi t of $34,870, or a penny a share, in the comparable period a year earlier. Sales for the third quarter totaled just over $2 million, up slightly from $1.968 million the same period a year earlier. B I Z M O N E Y M I D C O A S T & D O W N E A S T