Long-vacant Navy mess hall new home for Kennebec River Biosciences
Kennebec River Biosciences will build laboratory and manufacturing space in a 9,500-square-foot building once used as a mess hall by the Navy.
The Richmond-based aquaculture health business announced last week that it is growing, and would expand to Brunswick Landing.
The company plans to lease the building at 237 Neptune Drive, then buy once the Midcoast Regional Development Authority acquires the property from the federal government.
The building opened in 1953 and was called Neptune Hall when the Navy used it.
It still has much of the mess-hall infrastructure, including a full-service kitchen and bar, stainless steel kitchen, including counters and appliances; a dining area with a patio; a receiving area and loading dock; cold and dry goods storage area with two walk-in coolers and three walk-in freezers; offices; a backup generator and parking.
KRB will still maintain a presence in Richmond, where the company was founded as Micro Technologies in 1996, and does business in a clapboard building on Main Street.
Maine businesses that relocate to Brunswick Landing must prove that they couldn't find adequate space in their current community, said Steve Levesque, executive director of the MRRA. He said this week the former mess hall, with its coolers and other infrastructure, was well-suited to what KRB needs. That infrastructure is undergoing an extensive upgrade, however.
It initially focused on providing health testing such as diagnostics and screenings for aquatic animals, but is now is an international company, with customers on six continents, that offers autogenous vaccines, regulatory consultation and contract research.
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