LIMESTONE, Maine — Loring Development Authority President and CEO Carl Flora announced earlier this month that Loring Industries, along with New England Kenworth, has officially established a Kenworth truck dealership and TRP parts warehouse and outlet on the former Air Force base.
Loring Industries is the newest business addition to the 3,800-acre Loring Commerce Centre. Operated by Joseph Alosa Sr. of Concord, N.H., the business will occupy part of a 40,000 square foot building adjacent to a facility currently occupied by Maine Military Authority.
Alosa officials, in a press release, said that while it is “not yet clear how many employees will be hired or how quickly they will be brought on board,” Loring Industries has just began and there are “already many short- and long-term contracts that are shaping up.”
According to the release, Loring Industries is looking to immediately recruit new employees, with the first hires being assigned jobs in the sourcing and sale of parts, and subsequent hires utilizing basic mechanical skills.
The newly formed LLC has entered into an agreement with MMA in which they will supply nearly all of the parts required to complete the bus contract for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority as well as some of the labor associated with the overhaul process.
Flora said on Wednesday that MMA is expecting to receive an official notice to proceed with the MBTA job, adding that he believes “MMA will be ready to resume production of the MBTA buses in the near future.”
The LDA CEO also mentioned that Loring Industries had shown an interest in the former Loring Inn, which was once the Visiting Officers Quarters for the Air Force, and that they have since “occupied the building and spent considerable resources getting it updated and back into use,” adding that they “currently use the facility as a guest house for their own affiliates and employees as well as business customers,” and are considering opening the facility to the public as a commercial hotel or inn.
The Maine Military laid off 35 employees working on the MBTA project in late 2016 due to negotiations related to cost overruns with the contract. A significant step in clearing these negotiations was made last month when the Maine Legislature approved $29 million in new spending that included a $7 million rescue package for MMA sought by Governor LePage.
