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By TOM BELL, Staff Writer Tuesday, January 16, 2007

It began in the realm of grant proposals and economic theory, but now it's turning into steel and concrete. A collaborative effort among public agencies and private companies to boost the composites and boat-building industries is starting to pay off.

A real estate investor and a dock manufacturer are developing a Brunswick industrial campus where tenants will use composite materials to make products like yacht hulls, windmill blades and aviation parts.

In addition, one of the world's leading experts on composites technology has decided to move from Florida to Maine. Andre Cocquyt bought a home in Harpswell and will develop the curriculum at a new training center to be established in Brunswick.

All this signals the beginning of a so-called "industry cluster," which has become a Holy Grail for state economic development officials. The idea is this: When grouped together, companies in related businesses and their suppliers make a powerful center of commerce, attracting both workers and capital. (Think Silicon Valley.)

In its report released last October on the Maine economy, the Brookings Institution said the state should focus its investments to create such clusters. Gov. John Baldacci has seized on the idea. A group called the North Star Alliance, which is made up of companies in the marine sector and the composites industry as well as several state agencies, has taken on the mission of fostering industry clusters in the state.

That effort, which started more than a year ago, helped Maine secure federal Department of Labor grants totalling $17.2 million to be used to strengthen the composite boat-building industry

Now, for the first time, the private sector is putting money on the table, said Christina Sklarz-Libby, the program manager for Maine's North Star Alliance Initiative.

"It's going from theory to reality," she said.

The group plans to create an advanced composites cluster in Brunswick and use it as a model to replicate elsewhere in the state for the boat-building industry and eventually other sectors.

Maine's coastal region was one of 13 areas across the country to win funding through the U.S. Department of Labor's Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development initiative. Maine will get $15 million to develop a regional economic strategy centered around advanced composites and boat building. The money will be spent on research and development projects, training programs and initiatives to help businesses raise capital. In addition, the North Star Alliance is launching an ambitious marketing campaign to promote Maine's boat-building industry to global consumers and also to young Mainers thinking about careers in the industry. Building on the WIRED grant, Southern Maine Community College won a separate $2.2 million federal grant to establish an advanced composite technology center in Brunswick.

GROWING THE INDUSTRY

The initiative is already seeing some success. In the Brunswick industrial park, James Howard, a Topsham-based real estate investor, and Martin Grimnes, president of Harbor Technologies, plan create a composites technology campus. Although the project doesn't tap into any public funds, the developers say they wouldn't be making the investments if there was no overarching plan in place to help the industry grow.

Their new company, Allied Composites Center, plans to erect three buildings totaling 65,000 square feet. Each building will be equipped with the vacuum systems used in composites manufacturing. The tenants will share a reception desk, photocopying machines, fork lifts and delivery trucks.

Howard said businesses will be attracted to the center because they'll see the benefits of sharing services, labor and ideas. His company also will help tenants secure state and federal grant money.

The project doesn't have any committed tenants. The company is building the first structure on speculation. Once the building is filled with tenants, the company will erect the other two buildings.

Howard anticipates the company will spend $10 million to $12 million over the next two years.

He said he's sure the plan will succeed because of the new training center, the support of state agencies and because people within the industry are telling him they need the facilities.

"If you add all that up, that gives us confidence," he said.

GETTING KIDS INTERESTED

Business leaders and local and state officials view the Brunswick developments as setting the stage for transforming the Brunswick Naval Air Station into a composite manufacturing center.

Composites products are made by combining several materials to make them strong and lightweight. Grimnes' company, Harbor Technologies, for example, manufactures floating docks and pilings made from composite materials. The 8,000-square-foot facility is located next to the industrial lots that Howard and Grimnes are developing

Grimnes plans to double the size of his facility over the next six months because he needs more manufacturing space.

He said the industry can prosper only if it can attract and train skilled workers. That's why he's excited about the new composites training center as well as a training program that will be offered at the vocational high school in Brunswick.

"It builds an environment where kids are interested in technology and industry," Grimnes said. "If you have that, ideas and innovation start to bubble right up."

Industry clusters allow companies to be more efficient and innovative because they can share resources, ideas and talent, said Robert Lindyberg, a University of Maine professor who runs the Advance Engineered Wood Composites Center in Orono and sits on the North Star executive board.

He said clusters are built upon an underlying structure of academic, government and industry support. Companies see benefit in growing such a structure, he said, "rather than being thrown out in the cold and growing on your own."

Cocquyt said composite technology can flourish in Maine because the industry demands highly skilled people, not cheap manual labor. He said there are many skilled craftsmen in Maine's boat-building industry, all living and working in the same geographic area, and their skills are well-suited for the new technology.

"I think Maine has the advantage," he said. "In a radius of an hour-and-a-half drive, you have a lot of talent available and you can use that talent without big commutes and people having to move," he said.

Stephen Von Vogt, president of Maine Marine Composites and industry coordinator for the Northstar Alliance, sees Brunswick becoming just a piece of a much larger composites cluster that encompasses the entire state. Maine already has developed a niche in the use of composite materials, but the influx of federal money and the efforts of the North Star Alliance will allow Maine's composites sector to dominate the industry nationally, he said.

Von Vogt's company works as a general contractor for composite projects, and he's currently developing a project to build windmill blades.

"We are past the tipping point where we can be a force in the economy," he said.