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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 2
October 2007
$500,00 ME grant to finance capital improvements at Portland Fish Pier
PORTLAND, ME – The Portland Fish Pier now has some money in the bank to pay for much needed infrastructure improvement and to diversify the space currently occupied by the Portland Fish Exchange.
On Aug. 30, Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI), along with the Maine Department of Transportation and the Portland Fish Pier Authority announced the infusion of $500,000 of new capital into the pier.
According to Tom Valleau, chairman of the authority and president of the exchange’s board of directors, conditions on the grant limit the use of the money to capital improvements.
“That means you can’t use it for operating expenses,” he said.
In mid-September, Valleau said the plan was to divide the exchange building by constructing a couple of walls and adding a bathroom and renting the space out to a new tenant.
“The cooler/auction building is now bigger than it needs to be because business (at the exchange) is down by 75%,” he said.
Some of the grant money will be used to shore up the property, including repairs to pilings, roofs, refrigeration equipment, pavement, and other improvements the property needs.
As to the remaining money,Valleau added, “We hope there will beopportunities that we haven’t thought of yet.”
Pier’s purpose
The Portland Fish Pier was built in the early 1980s with funding from the federal Economic Development Administration, the state of Maine, the city of Portland, and CEI. The Portland Fish Pier Authority was created to serve as the landlord for the property under a long-term lease with the city.
The idea for the pier originated with a group of fishermen who needed a place to tie up their vessels, according to CEI, and around this core business, the city developed space for fish processors, a fuel and ice vendor, vessel repair shops, office space for marine trades, and berthing for the home fleet and transient vessels.
The Portland Fish Exchange, the centerpiece of the fish pier, was completed in 1986 to provide buyers and sellers with impartial grading and weighing services and a fair, transparent auction to determine the most accurate, up-to-date prices for wholesale fresh seafood.
Redirected funds
For the past six years, CEI has been administering a Portland-based working waterfront loan fund that was capitalized by the sale of the Portland Dry Dock.
According to CEI, the $1 million loan fund was designed specifically to help Portland pier and wharf owners to invest in and maintain their facilities and to help secure commercial marine access to the waterfront.
But while CEI did make a few loans, the fund was never fully used. Earlier this year, the administrators asked for a change in the fund’s use criteria, and the Maine Legislature approved LD 1154 as an emergency measure effective June 5.
The bill reallocated the $1 million loan fund to provide the $500,000 grant to the Portland Fish Pier and to allow the remaining money to be made available to CEI “for use in fisheries and waterfront initiatives along the state’s coast.”
“The fish pier’s facility and infrastructure was struggling, so we’re hoping it can really help that situation,” said Hugh Cowperthwaite of CEI. “And we have maybe $300,000 to lend specifically to marine working waterfront projects throughout the state.”
CEI is a nonprofit community development corporation and community development financial institution that has a track record dating back to 1979 of supporting Maine fisheries and fishing communities.
To date, the corporation has provided capital resources, both directly and leveraged totaling almost $60 million in financing for 200 fishing, marine trade, and working waterfront projects along the Maine coast, which have resulted in the creation of around 1,400 jobs.
Currently, CEI is administering the Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program. For more information on CEI programs, call Cowperthwaite at (207) 772-5356 or e-mail him at <hsc@ceimaine.org>. More information also is available online at <www.ceimaine.org>.
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