BRUNSWICK, Maine — People in Brunswick and Topsham remember it well. In 2005, the Navy and the federal government sent a message they had been dreading: the Brunswick Naval Air Station would close.
But on May 31, 2011, the base officially closed. By that time, the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority had been working for several years to plan for life after the Navy. Steve Levesque was leading that work and still is, but said he still recalls the harsh reality of the closing.
“And the Navy was gone, and (we) had 2 million square feet of empty space, totally empty, literally a ghost town,” he said Wednesday.
As the MRRA prepares to mark that anniversary, Levesque said the transformation of the former base has progressed better than they expected.
The huge facility is now Brunswick Landing and has become a busy hub of tech businesses, some manufacturers, call centers, and service businesses. Wayfair, the huge mail-order consumer goods business, opened a branch office to employ roughly 500 people. The Southern Maine Community College has a satellite campus in another part of the complex. Data storage, software design, specialty bandages, construction containment systems, and composites parts are all made at the Landing. other businesses repair and renovate aircraft. There are government and nonprofit offices on Brunswick Landing, too.
All of it, Levesque said, has helped them surpass the employment predictions.
“We projected we would have about 1,100 jobs by this time. And we have more than doubled that. Almost 150 companies are here, some really cool stuff happening. It's really blown away our expectations.”
He said the initial goal was to replace the 700 civilian jobs lost when the Navy shut down the base, a goal they reached about seven years ago. Now, he said, the overall payroll from Landing businesses is just about equal to the total civilian and military payroll under the Navy, when there were 5,000 sailors and their dependents stationed here.
Levesque said it hasn’t all been smooth, and some businesses have failed. Notably, Kestrel Aircraft, a premier tenant when Brunswick Landing opened, was unable to meet the promises of building a new model of airplanes and employing hundreds at Brunswick. Some other, smaller businesses have started and then closed. But Levesque said there have been many more successes than failures.
And more businesses are coming. A new medical office facility for Martin’s Point is under construction, which will become home to about 700 workers. Groundwork is underway for two other office buildings, one for a software business that began at the Landing’s Tech Place business incubator.
Then there is housing.
An increasing number of people are choosing to live at Brunswick Landing. Levesque said the former military housing is nearly all occupied, some as rental units, some as condos.
And in one of the most visible spots on the Landing’s entrance road, a large apartment complex is being rapidly built Construction began last summer, and now seven buildings are standing on the site, at least three of which are already filled. When completed later in the year the complex will have 108 market-rate apartments.
Steve Levesque said with all that housing occupied, several thousand people could soon be living on Brunswick Landing, in addition to those who work there and see who come to the Landing’s restaurant, brewery, or recreation facilities.
Rick Glover, vice president of STARC Systems, which manufactures an innovative panel system for enclosing indoor construction projects, says the growth is good to see.
“Drive through, it is vibrant and exciting, everywhere you turn there is building… it's very exciting, all kinds of technologies. We are proud to be here.”