A national company headquartered in Texas is the latest tenant to join the diverse lineup at Presque Isle’s Skyway Industrial Park.
Frito-Lay, which once shared space with parent company Pepsico elsewhere in the city, now occupies a new building it reserved before builders had even finished construction.
That’s typical at the 440-acre park: as soon as a spec building is finished, someone wants it. The park is full and growing, largely because it’s willing to adapt available spaces or build new ones, small or large, to fit businesses, said Presque Isle Industrial Council Executive Director Tom Powers.
“We receive compliments from other towns or cities or individuals saying, ‘We wish we had something like this,’” he said. “While we don’t own every building up here, we have about 20 to 25 that we oversee. But every city-owned building is full.”
Presque Isle’s park is funded with city money and governed by a quasi-municipal, nine-member industrial council. From its rental income, the council returns that money to the city each year and rolls the rest into future development, including spec buildings like Frito-Lay’s.
It’s the only business park in The County and one of few in Maine that operates that way, Powers said.
Bangor has several independent economic development corporations that manage industrial spaces, but none get city funds, then-Bangor economic development officer Steve Bolduc said in 2022.
Brunswick Landing is nearly 10 times Skyway’s size, at 3,200 acres. Like Presque Isle, the area was created to redevelop a former military installation and launched when the Brunswick Naval Air Station closed in 2011. But unlike its northern counterpart, it is managed by a group created by the state Legislature: the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority. Its varied funding sources include federal money, grants and business investments, according to Mainebiz.
Part of what makes Skyway Industrial Park work is the ability to move clients around and into larger or smaller spaces as needed, Powers said.
Two years ago, Coca-Cola sought to downsize. It no longer used its large bottling facility, so moved into a new, smaller building in 2022.
Meanwhile, agricultural equipment company Spudnik was growing, and found the vacated Coca-Cola building a perfect fit.
What is now Skyway Industrial Park started out as the Presque Isle Army Airfield in 1941 and became the Presque Isle Air Base in 1948, closing in 1961.
That year, wrestling with how to use 440 acres of land, an airport and military buildings, city leaders appointed an industrial council to oversee the area and use it to grow the local economy.
Now, 63 years later, the park has a mix of more than 60 tenants. Besides businesses, Northern Maine Community College, the Maine National Guard Readiness Center, the Presque Isle International Airport and the Mi’kmaq Nation are part of the park. It also hosts a general aviation terminal, Presque Isle Middle School, housing areas and The County’s only shelter for the homeless.
The park has attracted businesses looking to expand, such as F.W. Webb and Beauregard Equipment, both originally from Caribou. But the goal is not to take from other communities, just to help businesses find what they need, Powers said.
What’s worked best for Presque Isle is to court not only large, national businesses, but to offer any available space for smaller companies, which often expand, Powers said.
Maine aerospace company VALT Enterprizes did exactly that. The company moved to Presque Isle in 2021, inhabiting part of the General Aviation terminal building. Now, expansion is on the horizon.
The company will be the first tenant in a $4.5 million aerospace research center at the industrial park.
VALT chose Presque Isle because of the nearby airport, city support and proximity to remote spaces for test launches. The company employs 18 and will grow to about 26, giving more Maine engineers the chance to stay in the state, co-founder Karl Hoose said.
Powers, too, is anticipating future growth. He’s already chosen the next spec building site and thinks transportation could be the next big thing.
He’d like to see the park become a truck and rail depot. Skyway has six miles of railroad track, which companies like Columbia Forest Products and Dead River use.
At the center of Aroostook County, the park could become a hub, with goods trucked in, loaded onto rail cars or tractor trailers and shipped throughout The County, Maine and beyond, he said.
Potato producers have turned to rail in recent years, and Powers sees potential. Once part of an intermodal system, the park’s tracks are well maintained and ready to grow. It’s all part of his philosophy of trying to envision what businesses will need next.
“I’m not really a believer in luck. I’m a believer in being prepared,” he said. “Rail is going to be a really good player. It moves a lot of freight at a very reasonable cost.”
