May 28, 2007
Big-box dilemma | Belfast's got plenty of jobs and a local economy that's humming along. So why is its retail sector stalled?
By Douglas Rooks
If you ask Mike Hurley, Belfast has changed. It used to be that poultry and fish processing were the best jobs around ˆ the jobs that had long sustained this small city on Penobscot Bay. "We were a city that pulled the guts out of chickens, processed sardines and cut potatoes," says Hurley, the mayor of Belfast and a local businessman.
But when Belfast's poultry processors and fish factories went belly up in the 1970s, unemployment shot up to 20% and city hall engaged in a desperate search for jobs ˆ any jobs. It was an effort that, in the decades since, has had more than its share of success.
While most cities in the state have seen their manufacturing bases erode as their retail sector expands, Belfast has witnessed the opposite: its manufacturing and white-collar job base has stayed strong while its retail sector lags.
And that economy has changed Belfast from a city of chicken pluckers and sardine packers to, well, something different. Now, says Hurley, "there's a real leftist lean from all the people who've moved in since then." Describing a demographic familiar to urban areas across the country, he is equally blunt: "Poor people out, rich people in."
That leftist lean would seem to include the mayor, who has led the town since 2000 and is one of the state's longest-serving mayors. In fact, early in his mayoral tenure, Hurley helped organize voters to ban big-box stores from the city.
But these days, Hurley has a different take on whether Belfast should welcome the Wal-Marts and the Lowe's stores to town. In his mind, at least that would keep people from driving to Rockland or even Bangor to spend their money.
There are more worries than just Belfast residents leaving town to go shopping. Though a squabble about whether to allow big-box stores may not seem like it would impact a city's economic development efforts, some locals argue it would do just that. They're concerned that the local anti-big-box stance has been a black eye for Belfast, and that the city now has a reputation as a difficult place to do business. And that sagging reputation could be bad news for Belfast, which would be left in the lurch if big local employers like Bank of America leave town like the chicken processors and fish factories did in the 1970s.
Open for business?
The continuing business controversy in town lies in a complex and confusing set of referendums fought out over the issue of big box stores. In 2001, led by Hurley, its new mayor, Belfast voters banned stores larger than 75,000 sq. ft., after reports that Wal-Mart was going to build near the MBNA campus on Route 3.
A counter-petition proposed by property owners on the city's east side, away from the existing business district, was pushed through in 2003. It allowed stores up to 200,000 sq. ft. to locate on several lots that extend from the ocean all the way to Route 1 ˆ "a lousy place" for a big-box store, says Hurley. Even though the sites have been permitted for the last four years, no plans to build have surfaced.
Fed up with the dueling zoning referendums, another citizen's group successfully pushed through a referendum taking away the voters' right to change business zones by petition, leaving the matter with the city council ˆ which is deeply divided.
Currently, Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe's has come calling with a plan to build on the 90-acre lot across from the former MBNA building operated by Bank of America, which some council members favor as long as a general-merchandise retailer, possibly Wal-Mart, is included in the development.
While most other cities in a 50-mile radius are seeing a big influx of such stores, Belfast's big-box policy gridlock has hurt the city in the opinion of most storeowners and now, the mayor's as well.
The last full-service food store downtown closed two years ago and the building remains vacant, although the Belfast Co-op, emphasizing natural foods, is still going strong.
Hurley and others don't believe the conflict over big stores will be resolved any time soon. One observer who's attended various meetings on the subject says that anti-big box advocates treat the matter as "sport," a view shared by Kim Dunn, owner of Bennett's Gems. "When people go out of town, they also shop for things they can buy here," she says. "I might have a lower price and better selection than a competitor in Bangor, but they'll get the business."
Store owners in Belfast openly worry that the noisy big-box debate is giving people the impression that the city isn't business-friendly.
Alan Hinsey, an economic development consultant hired by the city, disagrees. "People in other places along the coast look at Belfast and see that the city council is engaged in providing opportunities," says Hinsey, who works as the representative for Knox and Waldo counties for Eastern Maine Development Corp. "There's a downtown [tax increment financing zone], there's a Pine Tree Zone that hasn't been filled up yet. The city definitely wants to work with business."
The council's attempts to locate commercial enterprises close to the center of town, including the waterfront, has at least one signal success story, a partnership known as French & Webb, which is building 50- to 60-foot yachts in three buildings that used to house marine enterprises.
"The city has been receptive and open to our needs," says Todd French, whose 12-year-old firm now employs 15 people and has enviable stability in a notoriously cyclical business. French in 1995 was looking for space for a boat-building operation when he discovered a suitable city-owned building, and within three months he was building boats there. He describes the reaction of the city as "fantastic," and says that people seem to take pride in having boat-building back on the waterfront.
The firm is close to establishing that elusive brand that would make French & Webb, in the words of Belfast Chamber of Commerce director Dana Mosher, "a world-class boatyard." At last summer's National Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Md., French & Webb exhibited two sailing vessels, 36 and 45 feet, that earned a lot of attention, French says.
The long-term solution
Manufacturing, in new and revised forms, continues to play a big part in Belfast. Penobscot Frozen Foods, reinvigorated by new ownership, is expanding its potato processing operation and plans to move to the Belfast Airport Industrial Park, adjacent to the city-owned airport south of downtown. That move will open up potentially lucrative space along the waterfront. "They know what they're sitting on," observes Hinsey.
While Moss Inc. laid off nearly two dozen workers last March after merging with a competitor, the tension-fabric manufacturer still employees nearly 200. Creative Apparel employs 275 workers making chemical warfare suits. Other manufacturers include Matthews Brothers, making custom windows, and Ducktrap River, a gourmet seafood processor.
There's also the rebirth of the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce, which last fall hired Dana Mosher as its new executive director after the position lay dormant for years. Mosher quickly saw that there was a proliferation of business groups in the Belfast area ˆ all of them focused on a particular task, and none of them much aware of the others.
Meanwhile, other groups, from arts organizations to local neighborhood committees, tried to pick up the slack, but the result was too much competition and too little coordination. "The chamber was perceived as weak and not very relevant," Mosher says.
To make the chamber more relevant, Mosher wants to win over other business groups as members, so that activities can be better coordinated. And the chamber isn't just focused on Belfast: Mosher hopes to bring in towns like Brooks, Searsport and Unity, which don't have their own chambers, to become a regional organization.
Kim Dunn, owner of Bennett's Gems, was a chamber director back when the organization was struggling without any paid staff. She says Mosher's work is already paying dividends. "He's been great," she says. "He understands that the business community has to begin working together, but he doesn't do it by trying to show who's boss. He finds out what the needs are, and then tries to fill them."
But none of this current success means a guaranteed future, says Hinsey, which is why he sees continuing innovation as the key to the region's long-term future. Expanding higher education ˆ which gets a boost in Belfast from the Hutchinson Center, Bank of America's gift to the University of Maine System last year ˆ and looking for small R&D firms is part of the Knox-Waldo economic development strategy he advocates. Hinsey says the small manufacturers that do well in Belfast often have research departments ˆ and that the midcoast can lure those R&D companies to Maine with the right strategy, thanks to its low-cost real estate and attractive surroundings.
Dunn has observed the city's internal battles over business development long enough to say it's time for a truce. If the city can finally make peace with larger stores and diversify shopping opportunities, she says, that will have a positive, not negative, impact on downtown.
"I can't think of a single downtown business that would be harmed by having a Wal-Mart come in," she says.
While her store has always been out on Route One, where the flow of tourist traffic is greatest, and now is located next to Perry's Nut House, a long-time tourist attraction, she finds benefits to her own business in promoting downtown stores. "We have a great local bookstore," she says, "and the country's oldest shoe store" ˆ dating from the 1830s, according to its façade. "Once they find out what's there, the tourists find it's just what they were looking for."
While she isn't predicting entirely smooth sailing, Dunn said the revived chamber is another investment that can pay off. "We're a little stubborn here, and stubbornness can work against us. If we just relax a little, and band together, we can make this place what we want it to be."
But when Belfast's poultry processors and fish factories went belly up in the 1970s, unemployment shot up to 20% and city hall engaged in a desperate search for jobs ˆ any jobs. It was an effort that, in the decades since, has had more than its share of success.
While most cities in the state have seen their manufacturing bases erode as their retail sector expands, Belfast has witnessed the opposite: its manufacturing and white-collar job base has stayed strong while its retail sector lags.
And that economy has changed Belfast from a city of chicken pluckers and sardine packers to, well, something different. Now, says Hurley, "there's a real leftist lean from all the people who've moved in since then." Describing a demographic familiar to urban areas across the country, he is equally blunt: "Poor people out, rich people in."
That leftist lean would seem to include the mayor, who has led the town since 2000 and is one of the state's longest-serving mayors. In fact, early in his mayoral tenure, Hurley helped organize voters to ban big-box stores from the city.
But these days, Hurley has a different take on whether Belfast should welcome the Wal-Marts and the Lowe's stores to town. In his mind, at least that would keep people from driving to Rockland or even Bangor to spend their money.
There are more worries than just Belfast residents leaving town to go shopping. Though a squabble about whether to allow big-box stores may not seem like it would impact a city's economic development efforts, some locals argue it would do just that. They're concerned that the local anti-big-box stance has been a black eye for Belfast, and that the city now has a reputation as a difficult place to do business. And that sagging reputation could be bad news for Belfast, which would be left in the lurch if big local employers like Bank of America leave town like the chicken processors and fish factories did in the 1970s.
Open for business?
The continuing business controversy in town lies in a complex and confusing set of referendums fought out over the issue of big box stores. In 2001, led by Hurley, its new mayor, Belfast voters banned stores larger than 75,000 sq. ft., after reports that Wal-Mart was going to build near the MBNA campus on Route 3.
A counter-petition proposed by property owners on the city's east side, away from the existing business district, was pushed through in 2003. It allowed stores up to 200,000 sq. ft. to locate on several lots that extend from the ocean all the way to Route 1 ˆ "a lousy place" for a big-box store, says Hurley. Even though the sites have been permitted for the last four years, no plans to build have surfaced.
Fed up with the dueling zoning referendums, another citizen's group successfully pushed through a referendum taking away the voters' right to change business zones by petition, leaving the matter with the city council ˆ which is deeply divided.
Currently, Mooresville, N.C.-based Lowe's has come calling with a plan to build on the 90-acre lot across from the former MBNA building operated by Bank of America, which some council members favor as long as a general-merchandise retailer, possibly Wal-Mart, is included in the development.
While most other cities in a 50-mile radius are seeing a big influx of such stores, Belfast's big-box policy gridlock has hurt the city in the opinion of most storeowners and now, the mayor's as well.
The last full-service food store downtown closed two years ago and the building remains vacant, although the Belfast Co-op, emphasizing natural foods, is still going strong.
Hurley and others don't believe the conflict over big stores will be resolved any time soon. One observer who's attended various meetings on the subject says that anti-big box advocates treat the matter as "sport," a view shared by Kim Dunn, owner of Bennett's Gems. "When people go out of town, they also shop for things they can buy here," she says. "I might have a lower price and better selection than a competitor in Bangor, but they'll get the business."
Store owners in Belfast openly worry that the noisy big-box debate is giving people the impression that the city isn't business-friendly.
Alan Hinsey, an economic development consultant hired by the city, disagrees. "People in other places along the coast look at Belfast and see that the city council is engaged in providing opportunities," says Hinsey, who works as the representative for Knox and Waldo counties for Eastern Maine Development Corp. "There's a downtown [tax increment financing zone], there's a Pine Tree Zone that hasn't been filled up yet. The city definitely wants to work with business."
The council's attempts to locate commercial enterprises close to the center of town, including the waterfront, has at least one signal success story, a partnership known as French & Webb, which is building 50- to 60-foot yachts in three buildings that used to house marine enterprises.
"The city has been receptive and open to our needs," says Todd French, whose 12-year-old firm now employs 15 people and has enviable stability in a notoriously cyclical business. French in 1995 was looking for space for a boat-building operation when he discovered a suitable city-owned building, and within three months he was building boats there. He describes the reaction of the city as "fantastic," and says that people seem to take pride in having boat-building back on the waterfront.
The firm is close to establishing that elusive brand that would make French & Webb, in the words of Belfast Chamber of Commerce director Dana Mosher, "a world-class boatyard." At last summer's National Sailboat Show in Annapolis, Md., French & Webb exhibited two sailing vessels, 36 and 45 feet, that earned a lot of attention, French says.
The long-term solution
Manufacturing, in new and revised forms, continues to play a big part in Belfast. Penobscot Frozen Foods, reinvigorated by new ownership, is expanding its potato processing operation and plans to move to the Belfast Airport Industrial Park, adjacent to the city-owned airport south of downtown. That move will open up potentially lucrative space along the waterfront. "They know what they're sitting on," observes Hinsey.
While Moss Inc. laid off nearly two dozen workers last March after merging with a competitor, the tension-fabric manufacturer still employees nearly 200. Creative Apparel employs 275 workers making chemical warfare suits. Other manufacturers include Matthews Brothers, making custom windows, and Ducktrap River, a gourmet seafood processor.
There's also the rebirth of the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce, which last fall hired Dana Mosher as its new executive director after the position lay dormant for years. Mosher quickly saw that there was a proliferation of business groups in the Belfast area ˆ all of them focused on a particular task, and none of them much aware of the others.
Meanwhile, other groups, from arts organizations to local neighborhood committees, tried to pick up the slack, but the result was too much competition and too little coordination. "The chamber was perceived as weak and not very relevant," Mosher says.
To make the chamber more relevant, Mosher wants to win over other business groups as members, so that activities can be better coordinated. And the chamber isn't just focused on Belfast: Mosher hopes to bring in towns like Brooks, Searsport and Unity, which don't have their own chambers, to become a regional organization.
Kim Dunn, owner of Bennett's Gems, was a chamber director back when the organization was struggling without any paid staff. She says Mosher's work is already paying dividends. "He's been great," she says. "He understands that the business community has to begin working together, but he doesn't do it by trying to show who's boss. He finds out what the needs are, and then tries to fill them."
But none of this current success means a guaranteed future, says Hinsey, which is why he sees continuing innovation as the key to the region's long-term future. Expanding higher education ˆ which gets a boost in Belfast from the Hutchinson Center, Bank of America's gift to the University of Maine System last year ˆ and looking for small R&D firms is part of the Knox-Waldo economic development strategy he advocates. Hinsey says the small manufacturers that do well in Belfast often have research departments ˆ and that the midcoast can lure those R&D companies to Maine with the right strategy, thanks to its low-cost real estate and attractive surroundings.
Dunn has observed the city's internal battles over business development long enough to say it's time for a truce. If the city can finally make peace with larger stores and diversify shopping opportunities, she says, that will have a positive, not negative, impact on downtown.
"I can't think of a single downtown business that would be harmed by having a Wal-Mart come in," she says.
While her store has always been out on Route One, where the flow of tourist traffic is greatest, and now is located next to Perry's Nut House, a long-time tourist attraction, she finds benefits to her own business in promoting downtown stores. "We have a great local bookstore," she says, "and the country's oldest shoe store" ˆ dating from the 1830s, according to its façade. "Once they find out what's there, the tourists find it's just what they were looking for."
While she isn't predicting entirely smooth sailing, Dunn said the revived chamber is another investment that can pay off. "We're a little stubborn here, and stubbornness can work against us. If we just relax a little, and band together, we can make this place what we want it to be."
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