PORTLAND, Maine — The Jackson Laboratory and the city of Presque Isle have won $3.4 million in federal grants for projects to support biomedical research and medical device manufacturing.
The grant recipients said the projects would help create about 400 jobs over the next decade and generate about $120 million in private investment.
The Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce announced The Jackson Laboratory will get $1.82 million to help turn a former Lowe’s in Ellsworth into a production facility for lab mice; the city of Presque Isle will get about $1.55 million to support the expansion of manufacturer Acme Monaco into a new city-owned building at 1450 Central Drive.
The nonprofit Jackson Lab, based in Bar Harbor, focuses on genomic research and breeds lab mice sold to more than 900 researchers in 56 countries, according to lab officials. Its “avatar” mouse allows physicians to test and develop individualized treatments for cancer patients.
But as the organization’s ability to develop research mice nears capacity at its existing animal facilities in Maine and California, Jackson Lab is planning to build a $75 million vivarium in Ellsworth that could produce and “maintain up to 160,000 mice after the first phase of construction and up to 640,000 after the planned 10-year scale-up,” according to information released by the lab Tuesday afternoon.
The new facility would allow Jackson Lab to gradually migrate mouse production to Ellsworth, thus freeing up the Bar Harbor campus for research and education expansion, according to the release.
Over the decade of expansion at the Ellsworth facility, Jackson Lab projects 230 new jobs will be created in Ellsworth and 135 in Bar Harbor, the release states. The organization now employs 1,350 people in Maine.
David Cole, city manager for Ellsworth, said Tuesday that the city has been looking forward to the redevelopment of the Lowe’s building into a mouse production facility.
“These are high-quality jobs with good wages and benefits,” Cole said of the lab positions that will be created in Ellsworth.
The lab is a nonprofit and, as such, will not pay property taxes on the facility, he acknowledged, but the boost the lab’s expansion will have to the area’s economy far exceeds the loss of property tax revenue to the city.
“There are few things in the world that are truly world-class, but Jackson Lab is one of them,” Cole said. “It’s very positive news for Ellsworth and the whole region.”
The Acme Monaco project in Presque Isle received another federal grant earlier this month, getting $250,000 from the Northern Border Regional Commission to improve the 16,000-square-foot city-owned building.
The EDA said its $1.55 million grant “will help fund the construction of offices, clean rooms, general and specialty production rooms, access modifications, and exterior site and parking improvements.”
The EDA grant brings the total in federal funds to more than $3.1 million awarded for the Presque Isle building, according to Larry Clark, director of the city’s industrial council. The city will match the latest grant with $630,000 in local funds, he said Tuesday.
Clark said the new facility will enable Acme Monaco to add 23 employees to the 72 now working in the city.
“This is big for Presque Isle,” Clark said. “This is an established company, and we really believe they are going to grow beyond the 23 anticipated new jobs.”
Acme Monaco, which is based in New Britain, Connecticut, has operated in Presque Isle since 1989, making medical products that include surgical staples and guidewires.
Clark said he anticipates bids will go out for the design and engineering portion of the project later next month or November, with an award by December. Requests for construction bids will be sent out with an expected project start time next spring and an anticipated move-in date for Acme Monaco in December 2016.
BDN writer Julia Bayly contributed to this report.