10 years after the Navy, former base has bounced back
The Brunswick Naval Air Station had been part of life in Brunswick and Topsham for half a century, and a vital part of the local economy. Author: Don Carrigan Updated: 9:37 PM EDT May 26, 2021
BRUNSWICK, Maine People in Brunswick and Topsham remember it well. In 2005, the Navy
and the federal government sent a message they had been dreading: the Brunswick Naval Air Station would close.
But on May 31, 2011, the base officially closed. By that time, the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority had been working for several years to plan for life after the Navy. Steve Levesque was leading that work and still is, but said he still recalls the harsh reality of the closing.
By Staff
Steve Levesque, longtime executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority who led the transformation of Brunswick’s shuttered naval air station into a thriving business community, will retire Dec. 31.
Levesque, a 2018 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year, will be succeeded by Kristine Logan, MRRA’s deputy director of innovation and development and director of the TechPlace business incubator at Brunswick Landing, according to a news release Thursday.
Logan will begin her new role in January 2022 and over the coming months will work with the MRRA board of trustees and staff to make the transition.
The change caps a 41-year career for Levesque, who has served as MRRA’s first and only executive director since its formation in 2008. He previously was executive director of the Brunswick Local Redevelopment Authority, which developed the master plan for the reuse of U.S. Naval Air Station Brunswick.
Executive director of Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority to retire after 16 years
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Steve Levesque, the longtime executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, will retire from his position at the end of this year, the organization announced Wednesday.
Levesque held the position for 16 years and has been the only executive director of MRRA since its establishment in 2008.
Kristine Logan, the organization’s deputy director of innovation and development and director of TechPlace, will take over Levesque’s role next beginning in January 2022.
The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority is the organization tasked with overseeing redevelopment efforts on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station since its decommission in 2011.
BluShift Aerospace opens $1 million crowdfunding campaign, starts building next rocket
The Brunswick-based rocket company successfully launched its first rocket back in January.
Courtesy of bluShift Aerospace
Brunswick-based rocket company bluShift Aerospace recently launched a crowdfunding campaign with a goal of just over $1 million.
As of Sunday, the company had raised $278,000 of the $300,000 goal in the initial family and friends round.
BluShift, which operates out of Brunswick Landing, made headlines in January for becoming the first in Maine to launch a commercial rocket and the first in the world to launch a commercial rocket using bio-derived fuel.
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Founder and CEO of bluShift Aerospace Sascha Deri.
An application for bonds that would raise $135 million to develop a ski resort on Moosehead Lake will go before a Finance Authority of Maine public hearing Monday.
Provident Group-Moosehead Lake L3C plans the resort for Big Moose Township, which is in the unorganized territory, about six miles north of Greenville, at the site of a once-thriving resort now run by a nonprofit as a small ski area. The L3C is the development team of Provident Resources Group, of Baton Rouge, La., in partnership with Big Lake Development LLC and Treadwell Franklin Inc., headed by Perry Williams, who lives in Louisiana and Spruce Head.