VAN BUREN, Maine — The Van Buren Town Council is seeking grants, including $1.79 million in congressionally directed spending, to transform the former municipal building on Main Street into a community connectivity hub and small business incubator.
The project continues the town’s collaboration with students from Philadelphia’s Drexel University. Last year, students at Drexel’s Westphal College of Media Arts & Design helped create about a dozen art pieces for Van Buren’s historical pathway.
Now, a new group of graduate students is creating designs for the upcoming building renovations. The designs have been reviewed by two professional architects, and would have cost the town between $75,000 and $100,000 if it sought them elsewhere, according to Town Manager Luke Dyer. The collaboration gives students real-world experience and costs the town nothing. Dyer thinks the project is a first for the state.
“I haven’t seen another project like this in Maine, and I think it would be a model project for other communities,” Dyer said, calling the plan “a great reuse of that building.”
When finished, part of the building will feature a makers market for local entrepreneurs. Ten business incubator spaces will be designed so that small ventures just starting up can sell their items without having to bear the burden of purchasing or renovating an entire building.
Rent charges, which are not yet specified, would offset utility costs, ideally creating a self-sustaining facility that does not burden taxpayers, Dyer said.
Makers markets are not uncommon in Maine. Some communities, including Rockland, hold them seasonally. Presque Isle recently opened Someday Comes, a private artisan co-op. But Van Buren’s plan is unique in that it will be headed by a municipality and created in collaboration with university students.
Dyer submitted a $1.79 million congressionally directed spending grant request to U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins last week, he said. King encouraged him to apply for the grant. If the money is approved, the town would not be obligated to contribute any matching funds.
The former municipal building also houses the “CONNECT” Center, which will open in the coming weeks. The community space will offer remote classes and a meeting room for municipal groups, local clubs and organizations.
A grand opening will take place at the center at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 9.
There could be more grants on the way to benefit other Van Buren projects. The town is a finalist for a $60,000 grant that will be used to help it create the Acadian Arts Center at the former Et Cetera building on Main Street, Dyer said. The town has also submitted a $100,000 grant for Main Street building renovations that was approved via a public hearing at the council’s last regular meeting.
Dyer has applied for a grant via the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, which could bring 25 different fruit trees to the town’s community garden.
The town is also close to securing an additional $89,000 via an Emergency Medical Services stabilization grant, Dyer said. The only work that remains is to submit a final plan. The town received $119,713 via this grant program last June, and used it to purchase life-saving equipment in honor of the wife of a longtime member of the ambulance department.
Dyer said he is hopeful about the CDS grant for the connectivity hub and business incubator on Main Street.
“It’s a perfect use for that building,” he said. “The location is perfect for this, and it would help drive other business in our downtown.”
