Jackson Lab to ramp up Lowe's conversion

The Jackson Laboratory’s planned expansion at the old Lowe’s home improvement retail store in Ellsworth is expected to create jobs and boost economic development, with the possibility of luring more biomedical companies to the area, the Mount Desert Islander reported.

Jackson Lab now employs about 1,500 people at its Bar Harbor facility, making it Hancock County’s top employer and the 19th biggest employer in Maine, according to state figures from early 2015.

The lab expects to begin converting the facility by the end of 2016, with completion by 2017; it will house all of its East Coast mouse breeding operations. The company also plans to build a new Bar Harbor facility, the Center for Biometric Analysis, that will perform diagnostics and treatment for mice. The expansion is expected to see 230 additional positions created in Ellsworth and 135 in Bar Harbor.

Lowe's, based in North Carolina, closed its stores in Biddeford and Ellsworth in 2011 as part of a nationwide downsizing. In Ellsworth, 80 full- and part-time workers lost their jobs, though they will be eligible for available jobs at other Lowe's locations. Jackson Lab in 2012 bought the 143,000-square-foot building, located on a 17-acre site with easy to access with parking and utilities.

The city views Jackson Lab’s entry as an opportunity.

“We are very lucky,” Ellsworth Economic Development Director Micki Sumpter told the paper. “There are communities that are losing paper mills. We have this industry that we should take advantage of.”

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