LIMESTONE, Maine – As officials try to revitalize the former Loring Air Force Base, Limestone residents agreed Tuesday that the town should offer tax incentives for current and future developers.
At a special town meeting held at Limestone Community School, 34 voters authorized the town’s Select Board to create three tax increment financing districts at Loring Commerce Center, the 3,800-acre industrial and commercial park formed after the base closed in 1994. The districts will allow Portland-based Green 4 Maine, LLC. and the town to receive portions of the increased tax values for properties that Green 4 Maine redevelops.
The vote by show of hands came during a time of increased momentum for Loring. After struggling to retain businesses and enduring financial shortfalls, Loring Development Authority, a state-created development entity, sold 450 acres to Green 4 Maine last year, hoping that private investors could leverage more resources and spur business growth.
Since then, Green 4 Maine has signed on companies within aviation, aerospace and artificial intelligence looking to build or renovate facilities, and plan to create housing for workers who will construct a $4 billlion sustainable aviation fuel production facility. Last week, Presque Isle developers announced plans to build a $55 million potato chip production plant starting this summer on the Loring campus.
Green 4 Maine founders Scott Hinkel and Thomas Manning said during the special meeting that they will use any returned tax revenue to invest long term in Loring’s aging infrastructure and entice companies to stay in Limestone.
“We know Loring has a long history here, and it’s not all pleasant,” Manning said. “But we have a golden opportunity to come in as private investors, not a state entity. It’s not only about job creation for the base but for all of Limestone.”
Tax increment financing districts, known as TIFs, will benefit both Green 4 Maine and Limestone, noted Jon Pottle, the town’s lawyer.
Without TIF districts, the town would need to factor in property tax revenue from Green 4 Maine’s new business development into their yearly municipal tax valuation. That means the town would see lower state education subsidies and revenue sharing, leading to potentially higher tax bills.
But TIF districts will allow Limestone to keep their portion of Green 4 Maine’s tax revenue for an economic development fund instead, Pottle noted.
“When you capture that new tax value from a TIF district, that value does not get added to the municipal valuation and that won’t affect revenue sharing or education subsidies,” Pottle said.
Limestone’s Select Board will now need to draft credit enhancement agreements with Green 4 Maine, which currently owns land within the first tax increment financing district.
Credit enhancement agreements will allow the first district to become official, and the other two districts to go into effect if Green 4 Maine purchases those 512- and 395-acre parcels.
The Select Board will negotiate a separate credit enhancement agreement with Taste of Maine, the company slated to build the potato chip processing plant within the third TIF district. All TIF districts will last 30 years once they begin.
Unlike Loring Development Authority-owned land, Green 4 Maine’s privately-owned property is eligible for taxation, helping Limestone reap more financial benefits.
In 2023, Limestone’s mill rate decreased from 28 to 22.69 mills after the town assessed 58 buildings within Green 4 Maine’s property. The town’s taxable real estate jumped from $61,549,510 to $69,296,250.
Several residents who voted Tuesday questioned why the TIF districts would need to last 30 years.
Though some communities’ TIF districts last for a shorter period, 30 years will allow Green 4 Maine the time it actually takes to invest in rehabbing buildings and attracting companies that want to stay long-term.
“It took 30 to 40 years for the base to get into the shape it’s in, and it could take 30 to 40 years to get it out of that shape,” Manning said. “TIFs are a way to accelerate that process. The money coming in may be a drop in the bucket, but every piece helps.”
In the wake of recent conflicts with Loring Development Authority, all four members of Limestone’s Select Board endorsed the proposed TIFs as a win-win scenario for the town and Green 4 Maine.
After 30 years of seeing most companies leave the base, a new approach could yield more success, said Randy Brooker, the Select Board’s chairperson.
“I feel like we stand a better chance with private developers [owning the base] and we’ll have more of a say in what happens,” Brooker said. “We’ve had 30 years of nothing, so if they can give us something, I’m all for that.”
