RICHMOND — An asphalt company with several locations in Maine is relocating some of its operations to Gardiner and Richmond, bringing up to 150 workers to its new sites.
The Gardiner City Council on Wednesday ratified a purchase and sale agreement with Auburn Asphalt, part of All States Asphalt, for two lots in the Libby Hill Business Park, and approved a credit enhancement agreement for the company. The purchase price was $275,000.
Last month, the company also closed on a parcel of property in Richmond at 699 Main St., which is anticipated to have an asphalt production facility with a silo, enclosed propane/gas tanks and a lab building and office.
Ron Simbari, Maine construction manager for the company, said the lease is up at Auburn Asphalt’s construction division in Windham, and the company is planning on centralizing its construction division in Richmond.
Its existing facilities in Auburn and Windsor will remain where they are, Simbari said.
Both the Gardiner and Richmond locations are close to Interstate 295.
“The majority of the traffic coming in and out of the facility will be north- or southbound on the interstate,” Simbari said.
Officials from both Gardiner and Richmond are anticipating an economic bump from the move, with additional employees working from those locations and additional excise tax anticipated from the registration of vehicles.
In Gardiner, the proceeds from the purchase are expected to shorten the length of time that the business park is expected to make money for the city through its tax increment financing district.
“If we sold no more lots, that would happen in 2023,” interim City Manager Anne Davis said. “This sale brings that point closer to us.”
Aside from that, Davis said the idea of having lots sold ought to make selling more lots easier. And, she said, having more energy-consuming businesses in the park — which already houses a crematory, Central Maine Meats and E.J. Prescott — could make the business park a more attractive location to bring natural gas to.
Auburn Asphalt had committed to buy the lots in the Gardiner business park nearly a year ago, and company officials have been working through the best way to develop those lots.
Under the credit enhancement agreement, the company is required to build a structure with a valuation of at least $500,000 and the building is required to be built within two years.
Simbari said the 37-acre Richmond site, which has completed its approval process, is ideal because it has only industrial neighbors, and the company’s crews start early, at 4 a.m.
“On any given day, we’ll have between 50 and 150 people working for us,” he said.
Some of those will be All States employees, and others will be subcontractors, he said.
Richmond officials expect that some employees may relocate to Richmond and others will spend money at businesses in town.
When company officials presented the project to the Richmond Planning Board, Simbari said the company worked on the paving project on Interstate 295.
The asphalt plant is an industrial use that will replace the P.R. Russell bark mulch operation that currently occupies the site. The company did not respond to requests seeking comment.
John Lavine, of All States Asphalt, said the facility will include storage for materials to make up the various hot mix asphalt types, a plant with a capacity of 5 tons, propane and oil tanks for fuel. A materials lab and offices are also a part of the plan.
The process of drying sand and stone creates dust, he said and a bag house on site will capture 99.99 percent of that. The company has other measures in place to contain the other dust that might be generated on site.
Lavine said the trees that are on the site will be retained, limiting the view of the site from Route 197, and the closest house is about a quarter-mile away.
Once the asphalt is produced, he said, it will either be loaded onto a truck immediately, or it will be stored on site in silos until it’s shipped out.
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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