Less than a month ago, the Taste of Maine Potato Chip Co.’s $65 million flagship plant on the former Loring Air Force Base looked like little more than a fenced-in patch of gravel.
Today, the frame of the 96,000-square-foot facility towers over the surrounding area as the plant begins to take shape.
“This is not just a shovel in the ground. This is actually happening,” said Brandon McDonald, regional hub coordinator for the Northern Maine Development Commission, standing in front of the construction site.
The development commission invited a number of legislators and other government officials to view the site’s progress Wednesday, including Michael Duguay, commissioner of the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development.
It marks a significant step forward both for Taste of Maine and the revitalization of Loring, which has seen stagnant development until recent years since the air force base closed in 1994.
“This is the keystone for future developments that are going to happen here,” Limestone Town Manager Edward Pocock said. “The town stands ready to be partners in it.”
Owner Bruce Sargent anticipates the plant will open in April or May of 2026. He said it will create around 40 jobs initially, a number he hopes will climb to 60 or 65.
The facility will have the capacity to hold eight kettles to produce kettle chips, Sargent said, but will begin by only using four.
“We’re building the extra building now because it’s cheaper to build it now than to add on,” Sargent said. “So we’ll start out with four [kettles] and if we go to eight, everything will be set up. We’ll just have to buy four more kettles and the packing equipment.”
With four kettles, the plant will be able to produce around 100,000 eight ounce bags of chips a day. Sargent expects to use roughly 1,500 acres of both white round and russet potatoes from local farmers at that production level. He aims to sell chips firstly under the Taste of Maine brand, then eventually produce chips for major companies.
“We’ll start out with our brand in Maine obviously,” Sargent said. “But my goal is to be able to co-pack and private label for the major stores and maybe co-pack for your major — like a Frito-Lay, or something like that.”
Project engineer Buck Construction began putting up the building’s structural steel on June 1. It’s now installing roof decking and exterior wall panels. Project manager Andy Martin said plumbing work is expected to begin on July 7.
The contractor is aiming to construct interior slabs around August, followed by interior walls and final preparation to hand the building over for equipment installation in December.
“Right now as it looks, the process is going very well,” Martin said. “The steel is going together really well. We’re not having any major issues.”
Construction on the project was originally scheduled to start in July of 2024, but was pushed back due to delays in waste water permitting that forced Taste of Maine to purchase a digester at the estimated cost of $1.3 million, so as to not overwhelm the Limestone Water & Sewer District.
An additional challenge arose when Buck Construction realized the water lines running to the building would not be enough to protect it in the event of a fire.
“We had to scramble to come up with a totally different system for that,” Martin said. “So there’s going to be a 150-gallon tank sitting here with a fire pump building.
But since construction officially began in April, Martin said things have been going smoothly. It’s the second major project of its kind the contractor has worked on in recent years. Buck Construction built the 126,000-square-foot Penobscot McCrum french fry processing facility in Washburn in 2019.
“From a production [standpoint] and what we’re facilitating, this is actually much simpler,” Martin said. “You don’t have a freezer with ammonia lines and underground glycol systems, screw compressors, an engine room to run all your refrigeration … This one is going to be an enable/disable-type function plan, it’s not going to be a lot of manual operation. It’s push the green button and go.”
And when Taste of Maine is finally able to press that button in 2026, local officials and legislators alike agree it will be a major economic milestone for the region.
“The Sargent investment really is a testament to the power of The County and the power of the community,” Aroostook Partnership President and CEO Kiersten Purington said. “I really believe strongly in building long-standing initiatives here that are going to support the economy and support our people.”
