The following is the text of Mayor Bruce Chuluda’s speech at the Jan. 26 press confrence announcing Idexx’s expansion plans
The city of Westbrook has worked hard, through the efforts of members of my administration, and the City Council (present and past) to help make Westbrook an attractive and supportive place to grow business. This investment, as (Idexx Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Ayers) remarked earlier, is truly a milestone in the company’s history, and does genuinely represent a major commitment by a company with a strong history and a great future here in Westbrook.
One of the key elements in the city’s successes to date has been the public/private partnerships that have been forged to make projects like this occur. The city partnered with Disability RMS to bring 350 new jobs to the city through the use of EPA Brownfields assessment, remediation, and revolving loan funds, together with the construction of a municipal parking garage. The city’s financial support of many of our small businesses through its municipal revolving loan fund has granted over $489,000 in loans to small businesses as gap-and start-up funding. The high costs of starting, operating and growing businesses in Maine is well documented. In today’s world featuring global markets and the loss of jobs to overseas locations, these kinds of partnerships are necessary, if not essential.
It is for these reasons that the city of Westbrook recognizes the need today for this new public/private partnership, representing significant participation by the city of Westbrook, the state of Maine, and most importantly Idexx. While Idexx is investing a projected $100 million, the city, through its tax increment financing, will provide almost $9 million over the life of the TIF.
Five hundred new jobs will go a long way towards offsetting the 3,000 jobs lost in the manufacturing sector over the last eight years. More importantly, this new investment by Idexx, together with the public partnership, sends an important signal that Westbrook is ready and able to accommodate important and significant growth in the biotechnical sector. We applaud Idexx for their decision, and look forward to working with them on this important development in the future.
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