Amazon is one step closer to owning a lot of land in Maine.
The Gorham Town Council approved a plan to sell 93.9 acres to the retail giant. The lot sits along Route 25.
The deal is worth $4 million.
Amazon hasn’t said what it plans to do with the land.
There was no public comment on the sale.
The town voted 5-2 in favor of the deal after debating for about half an hour.
“I’m in full support of this,” Gorham Town Councilor Rob Lavoie said. “I think it’d be a shame if we don’t take this offer. We’ve hashed it out in executive sessions, we’ve asked all the questions. So I will be supporting this tonight.”
“You know, we constantly talk about bringing new businesses into Gorham, and this, I mean, it feels like a devil’s bargain here. You know? You can get a large business that’s going to bring in quite a bit of property tax revenue, but it’s Amazon,” Gorham Town Councilor Seven Siegel said.
Some residents say the deal came out of nowhere, and they didn’t have enough notice to speak their minds.
The sale isn’t final.
There’s a permitting process next, and town leaders say the public will get to have their say on that.
In a statement Tuesday night, Amazon said, in part, “Nothing is finalized in Gorham yet, and we’ll share more if additional progress is made and we have something confirmed to announce.”
