When photographer Tanja Hollander walked into the Dana Warp Mill, she thought right away the space was perfect for the Bakery Photographic Collective.

“When we walked into that space it was like we knew,” she said. “It’s big. It’s beautiful. It’s inspiring. It made us want to be there.

The arrival of companies like the Bakery Photographic Collective is indicative of the mill’s ability to bring an array of businesses to Westbrook, city economic development officials say.

The mill attracts companies because it’s a very adaptable space for a number of ventures, said Erik Carson, Westbrook’s economic and community development director. And because rent is relatively inexpensive, it works well for small businesses and start-ups. The building houses about 38 businesses in a fairly even mix between service, production, and office space and is playing the incubator role the city hoped it would play, according to Carson.

“That was the whole intent of the building,” said mill owner Tim Flannery. “It has done the job.”

The building’s high ceilings and open spaces are easily adaptable to a wide variety of uses, making the building attractive to businesses and artists alike.

“We were a new business looking for a fairly large space so we could set up classrooms,” said Andrew King, director of operations for Maine Bridge Education. “We found the space and immediately fell in love with it, and liked the variety of businesses in the building.”

“The space for me is great because of the attraction of the old world feeling,” said Nancy Reynolds, owner of Portland Fencing. “The high ceilings, length, open space. I hope to be here a long time.”

One of the building’s first tenants was Shelley Engineering, which came to the mill over five years ago from Portland because the building offered lower rent and room to grow, according to owner Timothy Shelley. “We’re an established firm and love being here,” said Shelley. “Clients that come here are always impressed with the view and the building.”

The Bakery Photographic Collective comes to the mill after about five years in Portland. The collective is a group of professional photographers who pool their resources for dark room space. The Collective now has 19 members and six interns who are artists, photojournalists, commercial artists, and hobbyists. It is the only dark room cooperative of its kind north of New York and attracts renters from Boston and as far north as Camden, according to co-founder Scott Peterman.

The collective is moving because it has outgrown its space in Portland and couldn’t find anything within its price range there. According to Peterman, the collective was paying $850 per month, plus heat, for 800 square feet in Portland.

In the new space, the rent is about $1,500 per month, including heat, for about 4,000 square feet. Both Peterman and Hollander said that the city went a long way in helping them make the move to the mill, both in helping with the process and also through a loan the collective received as part of the city’s revolving loan program.

Hollander said that to pay for renovations and the higher rent, the collective would be renting the dark rooms to the public more than they do now. They’ll also be setting up a gallery and working with Chicky’s restaurant to display and sell their work.

In addition, they’ve increased their monthly dues from $100 to $125. Plans call for the collective, which hopes to move into the space by the beginning of July, to “double their number of dark rooms from four to eight and add an office, a digital lab, gallery space, a shooting studio, and a classroom,” said Hollander.

Peterman said the collective hopes to hold their annual auction in the new space, which will bring works from over 100 photographers and a couple of hundred people to the mill. They’ll also be doing shows, public workshops, outreach efforts to Westbrook schools, and a lecture series with visiting photographers that they hope to have up and running in the fall, according to Hollander. They also hope to be part of the arts activities that take place on the Riverwalk in the summer, said Peterman.

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