A Dream Re-visited
on the 30^th Anniversary of
Freedom Park for Commerce and Industry
Hermon (Bangor), Maine, USA

by Bernhoff A. Dahl

The Dream of 1976: The Dream was simple: to invest in Maine a portion of our pathology group’s professional earnings. Based on past personal experience and success in association with my father’s industrial park in New Jersey, I decided that we would build a private Commercial and Industrial park in the Bangor area. Freedom Park for Commerce and Industry in nearby Hermon was born.

The Dream simply ignored the fact that private parks in Maine were rare and that the State and Federally-subsidized public industrial parks were an outstanding failure in the face of increasing nationwide and worldwide completion. We would build Freedom Park for Commerce and Industry, the Park of Dreams. Simply stated, “we will build it and they shall come.

The Realities: Businesses came. With the help and courage of key citizens of Hermon, Motor Truck and Trailer and other businesses came. We were labeled the “business bandits” and a firestorm of local competition erupted, which has lasted for decades. My professional partners, being risk-averse and showing considerable wisdom, left the Dream.

I was now alone on this massive, risky and long-term project. I did, however, gain the support of a small but strong cadre of folk in the Town of Hermon, as significant real estate and vehicle excise taxes started rolling in to the Town’s coffers. The Town shared in the cost of infrastructure development on three occasions. Competition for new businesses was intense. I built a series of “spec” buildings and more businesses came. When I couldn’t find a business for a new building, I started one of my own, and Overhead Door of Bangor and others came into being.

The Dream seemed to be materializing.

The Nightmare: After several years of struggle and some initial successes, the inevitable realities of business cycles struck and a downturn ensued. This setback was compounded by a striking change in the political and bureaucratic power structure in Hermon. Local support was capricious and even turned negative. Metaphorically, I was a miner who was working a vein of gold, and a few locals were rustling my burros, even though they were already gaining significant tax revenues, and could gain much much more, if they supported “the mine”. The Dream had evolved into a nightmare.

The Land of Many Cycles: Local, State and Federal politicians and bureaucrats came and went, expanding the size (and cost) of government and leaving behind an array of costly new laws and regulations detrimental to the Business Community. Businesses were lured away from Maine by “business-friendly” and aggressive states or foreign countries. Some businesses and military bases simply evaporated as “peace” displaced the lucrative Military-Industrial Complex which had been so beneficial to Maine for decades. Energy costs skyrocketed as some  “well-meaning activists” undermined the nuclear power facilities in New England. Other activists sought to curb harvesting the forests and the Gulf of Maine, thus restricting two major industries in Maine. Any new businesses that did come to Maine, usually went to southern Maine, not here in Eastern and Northern Maine (which has become known as the “Other Maine”). Then came NAFTA and the “great sucking sound” was deafening.

At Freedom Park, however, we developed a full spectrum of land and space products, from short-term office and “incubator” space to full scale custom-built buildings. We offered financing, low taxes, minimal “red tape”, and a great location (near BIA, I95, and I395). Freedom Park now had “critical mass” and was surviving, even thriving, in spite of the cycles.

We learned how to market The Dream aggressively worldwide and we added new meaning to our old appellation “The Business Bandits."

The Present: Over the past decade, working closely with the late Jimmy Munn, past President of the Hermon Economic Development, with Steve Tuckerman, Town Manager, and first with Don Buffington and more recently with Ron Harriman, commercial and industrial real estate consultants to the Town of Hermon, we returned to the co-operative spirit of the Dream of the start-up days. We completed all the infrastructure at Freedom Park and have prepared all the remaining sites and land parcels for the marketplace.

Since its inception in 1976, Freedom Park has provided the Town of Hermon over $10,000,000 (that is over 10 million dollars!) in tax revenues on its investment of $198,000 in infra-structure (a handsome return!!). Working together with John Vogell of Dawson Commercial Realty and other real estate agents in the area, we have developed a rapid-response Economic Development team that recently brought Otis Elevators, Compaq Computers, Colonial Distributors and Exide Battery Corp. to Freedom Park. We have built the Park of Dreams and they have come....over 70 businesses...and still more are coming.

The Future: As I pass the baton of the original developer, the “visionary,” on to the next generation, I believe that Freedom Park is now a fully viable economic entity. Its well-being is supported by the Town of Hermon, especially since Freedom Park itself generates over $750,000 in annual tax revenues for the Town...free and clear ... with NO mortgages, bonds, or notes due. Freedom Park should be able to weather the future worldwide business cycles, unrealized political campaign rhetoric, new restrictive laws and regulations, higher energy costs, even more militant activists, etc.

The answer may come from President Calvin Coolidge who once wrote:

“Nothing in the World can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with great talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence, determination alone are omnipotent.”

Other key questions still surface:

There are impossible dreams... and there are also dreams that may be quite rational and possible. Pursuing a dream may bring financial or emotional (ego) success or failure, for yourself or for others. Our cynical society rarely celebrates the success of a dreamer, but always relishes in their failures. As a pursuer of great dreams, in the end you will be all alone.

May you relish and enjoy all of your fleeting dreams, but be very careful when you chose those dreams which you then set out to fulfill. “Take-offs” are optional, but “landings” are mandatory.