A midcoast retailer that sells and leases tractors, small backhoes, mowers and other farm equipment is looking to open a new store in Ellsworth.
Union Farm Equipment, based in the town of Union, has submitted a building permit application to city officials to develop a property on Route 1 next to the Hancock town line. The proposal is to construct a store with a rental and service center that’s roughly 12,000 square feet in size on a 13-acre lot.
The project is the latest to be proposed or to break ground in Ellsworth, which has been one of the fastest growing municipalities in eastern Maine in the past 20-plus years. Multiple high-density housing projects have gone up in the city in the past decade, while several large retailers and other types of businesses have also expanded there.
“We’ve outgrown our property here,” Ken Kieran, president of the company, said of their location on Route 17 in Union, which is more than an hour away in Knox County. He said they’ve been getting more and more customers from Hancock and Washington counties and, while they do offer road service, keeping up with demand for servicing equipment in those two counties is “next to impossible.”
Kubota is one of their main product lines, but there are no Kubota dealers in Hancock and Washington counties, Kieran said. He said there also are no Walker mower dealers in the Ellsworth area.
“Ellsworth is definitely a growing area,” he said.
Kieran said if the project is approved, the company would hope to open in Ellsworth in 2026. He said he expects to have a dozen employees based there when it opens, and for the staff to grow over time to around 18 to 20 people — roughly half as many people who work at its Union location, he said.
The Ellsworth planning board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposal at 5:30 p.m. July 2 at City Hall.
Union Farm Equipment’s proposal would be one of a handful of large projects in active development in Ellsworth. Other current projects include a new Dysart’s gas station and convenience store on High Street, a four-story Home2 Suites hotel under construction next to Hampton Inn, and a new modern courthouse the state’s judicial branch plans to build off Merrill Lane.
There also are large-scale multi-unit housing projects planned for Ellsworth. Two of those, like the farm equipment store and the courthouse, would be built on undeveloped lots. Dysart’s and Home2 Suites are redeveloping commercial properties on High Street.
Ellsworth has been one of the fastest growing municipalities in eastern Maine over the past 20-plus years, with a population that has grown from roughly 6,500 in 2000 to more than 8,800 in 2024, according to U.S. census estimates. That is a growth rate of nearly 37 percent, compared with a nationwide growth over that same time period of 20 percent, and statewide growth in Maine of 10 percent.
During that time, companies that have built or expanded in the city include Walmart, Home Depot, The Jackson Laboratory, Convenient MD, Hampton Inn, Darling’s automobile dealerships and Franklin Savings Bank. Multiple high-density housing projects have been built in the city in recent years to accommodate its growing population, and several lots along the city’s busy High Street corridor have been redeveloped as new companies have moved in.
