A huge Gorham parcel now for sale would be preserved for agriculture and public trails – with potential for attracting a brewery – if the landowner accepts a purchase offer.
Shaw Brothers Family Foundation, established by Jon and Danny Shaw, is seeking to buy a largely wooded, 258-acre site on Gorham’s lower Main Street (Route 25) from ecomaine, the regional waste and recycling company governed by 20 municipalities. The Shaw brothers, who grew up on a Gorham dairy farm, are proposing to restore former hayfields, start a cattle farm, create trails and build a mile-long public access road through the ecomaine site to the Presumpscot River.
“Our plan is to build a working farm,” Jon Shaw said.
Last year, the Gorham Town Council endorsed the Shaws’ plan.
“We have promised the town we’d leave the frontage for taxable buildings for the town,” Jon Shaw said Tuesday, but added their foundation wouldn’t sell land.
Ecomaine is exempt from paying property taxes on its Gorham land. Shaw said there’s room on the road frontage for three buildings. Payments on long-term leases would go to the foundation.
This week, Kai Adams, co-founder of Sebago Brewing Co., based in Gorham, said his company interested.
“We’d love to be part of that,” said Adams.
But the whole proposal is facing a snag. Last fall, ecomaine rejected the Shaw brothers’ $1.6 million offer for the property, which still has for-sale signs on it.
The Shaws founded Shaw Brothers Construction Inc. in 1977. The company, now an earth-moving giant, has a quarry and asphalt plant on Mosher Road in Gorham, where its lavish headquarters was built a few years ago.
Sebago Brewing Co. has been headquartered in the Gorham Industrial Park for a decade. It has brewpubs in Portland, Scarborough, and Kennebunk besides its Gorham location on Elm Street. But, the brewery said last year it had outgrown its headquarters.
Last September, the brewery told Gorham officials it was proposing to build a 30,000-square-foot facility at Mosher’s Corner, where routes 237 and 25 intersect. It is a short distance from the ecomaine site.
Sebago Brewing’s proposal at Mosher’s Corner would have included corporate offices, production facility, warehouse, restaurant and kitchens, a tasting room and function area.
But in October, Sebago Brewing asked the town to table that proposal. Now, Sebago Brewing is waiting on the Shaws’ proposal.
“We’d love to stay in Gorham,” Adams said. “We really need to start construction of a building by this spring.”
Gorham Zoning Administrator David Galbraith said Wednesday he hopes Sebago Brewing Co. stays in town.
“They are a great company,” Galbraith said.
Galbraith said the ecomaine Main Street site would be a great location for Sebago Brewing.
“Sebago Brewing has interest because the road frontage of this property is now their preferred location for their new brewery,” Gorham Town Councilor Benjamin Hartwell said in an email.
Danny Shaw said Wednesday the foundation formally submitted an offer to ecomaine for “the full amount” of the property’s appraised value.
“We’ve offered $1.6 million with no conditions,” Jon Shaw said.
Kevin Roche, ecomaine chief executive officer, said it hasn’t had the property appraised for two years, and the last appraisal was in February 2014.
“Because the property is listed for sale, I’m not at liberty to discuss details of appraisals,” Roche said.
The ecomaine board of directors didn’t accept the Shaws’ offer last fall. Roche said the board then also decided to list the property.
“It’s listed for $1.9 million,” Roche said.
“The board very much appreciated Mr. Shaw’s vision of the property,” Roche added.
Roche declined Tuesday to disclose whether it had other offers.
Jon Shaw indicated Tuesday that the offer still stands. He said their foundation could pay cash and the money is in the bank.
“Right now, tomorrow,” Jon Shaw said Tuesday when asked how fast they could move.
The Shaws envision white fences and raising cattle that perhaps would be organic beef.
“We want to have a farm,” Jon Shaw said.
Also as part of the foundation’s plans, the Shaws are talking with an entity it didn’t name about the possibility of operating a farm market that would sell local produce.
The ecomaine property, known historically as the Ross Grant, is located a short distance from the Westbrook city line on the heavily traveled Route 25, a commuter arterial. The ecomaine forerunner, Regional Waste Services, acquired the property for use as a so-called stump dump recycling site. A natural gas-fired plant to generate electricity was also proposed there in the 1990s but wasn’t constructed.
The ecomaine site is sandwiched between the Mosher and Rines farms, both sprawling and historic. The area is the eastern gateway to Gorham. Jon Shaw said he wants the site they’re trying to buy to look like “a million bucks.”
Danny Shaw said, “We’re not asking anybody to help us.”
Shaw Brothers Family Foundation hopes to buy this Gorham parcel owned by ecomaine to preserve it for farming and public recreational use.Send questions/comments to the editors.
