Each year, the Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA) recognizes some of the state’s most “noteworthy and significant” real estate projects, completed in the previous year. The exemplary projects from across the state, completed in 2023, not only embody MEREDA’s belief in responsible real estate development, but also exemplify best practices in the industry, contributing to Maine’s economic growth by significant investment of resources and job creation statewide.
This year, MEREDA honored projects from Portland to Gardiner to Presque Isle, with each receiving special recognition at MEREDA’s 2024 Spring Conference on May 15th.
In a multi-part series exclusive to the Maine Real Estate Insider, we’ll provide an up-close look at the most notable commercial development projects of the past year that are helping to fuel Maine’s economy in terms of investment and job creation. MEREDA is proud to recognize responsible development based upon criteria including environmental sustainability, economic impact, energy efficiency, difficulty of the development, uniqueness, social impact and job creation.
MEREDA’s 2022 Top 7 recipients include:
University of Southern Maine Portland Commons Residence Hall and McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, Capstone Development Partners (Portland) Maine Savings Amphitheater, Waterfront Concerts, LLC (Bangor) Phoenix Flats, Community Housing of Maine (Portland) Homeless Services Center, Developers Collaborative (Portland) Northeastland Hotel, Developer (Presque Isle) Johnson Hall Opera House, Johnson Hall Redevelopment, LLC (Gardiner) The Armature at Hanover Works, Reveler Development (Portland)
Please join us this week in celebrating Maine Savings Amphitheater.
MEREDA: Describe the building and project.
Waterfront Concerts completed their vision of a best-in-class Amphitheater making it the largest and most modern music venue North of Boston. With its completion, Bangor, Maine, in the summer, has solidified its position in the Northeast as a premier concert destination for years to come. Additions include, ten suites, five premium clubs, ADA improvements, improved concessions, terraced seating and two hundred and fifty-two new bathrooms. Their team worked to upgrade every surface, every seat, every touch point for their consumers. They were incredibly careful to use Maine made products and contractors in every aspect of the build where they could to maximize the impact of the build locally.
MEREDA: What was the impetus for this project?
Our teams desire to have world class entertainment and economic development in the Bangor region where most of us grew up.
MEREDA: That sounds like quite a process. How long were you in the planning stages before construction started?
Visioning sessions began with staff from Waterfront Concerts and Ervin Architecture in the winter of 2018.
MEREDA: Tell us about the most challenging aspect of getting this project completed.
Covid. We started the project at the completion of the 2019 season. We paused this project in July of 2020 to protect our staff’s jobs. We resumed construction when mass gatherings were allowed in 2021 in an effort to hold four concerts in 2021. We resumed full time construction in the fall of 2021 and worked every day that there wasn’t a concert and during a few concerts if the artist allowed it until completion in May of 2023 when the space was substantially complete.
MEREDA: Something unexpected you learned along the way was….
We all know the term “supply chain”. Managing this is difficult in construction. The pandemic made it much more difficult.
MEREDA: Now that it’s complete, what feature of the project do you think makes it the most notable?
Fans alike love the improved surfaces and overall improvement of the concert experience, especially viewing from each seat. The ladies love the 252 working bathrooms (66% are ladies rooms) and the attendants that staff them.
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PORTLAND, Maine (July 15, 2024) – Jeremy Deering of Scarborough and Ron Dovich of Cumberland have been elected to the board of directors of the Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA), a statewide organization of commercial real estate owners, developers and related service providers.
Jeremy Deering is a Senior Vice President and Regional Commercial Banking Manager for the Maine Region for NBT Bank, based in Portland. He is a native Mainer who was born and raised in Central Maine. Jeremy graduated from the University of New England and began his banking career shortly thereafter. He has spent the last 25 years in the Banking industry, the vast majority of which has been focused on Commercial Banking.
Prior to the last five years at NBT Bank, Jeremy has enjoyed team leader roles in Commercial Banking at Bank of New Hampshire and Androscoggin Bank. Jeremy’s professional interests include Construction, Development, Commercial Real Estate, Family-Owned Businesses and Leadership. Jeremy is passionate about Maine, Maine people, and helping move Maine forward.
Ron Dovich is a Senior Relationship Manager for TD Bank serving clients throughout Maine. He is responsible for Developing new business and managing existing client portfolios with a focus on commercial real estate. Ron joined TD Bank in July of 2020. Prior to TD Ron worked for a Commercial Real Estate Development Firm in Houston, TX where they focused on Light Industrial business parks and NNN Retail properties.
Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, Ron served in the US Navy for 10 years as a Naval aviator, which included 3 years assigned to NAS Brunswick, ME, ultimately influencing he and his family to relocate back to Maine in 2020.
“We are excited to announce the addition of Jeremy and Ron to our board of directors. Their diverse backgrounds and expertise in real estate, development, and investment will bring immense value to our organization. MEREDA is committed to making a positive impact and with the passion and dedication of our board members, we will continue to do so,” says Shelly R. Clark, Executive Director for MEREDA.
For further information, please contact MEREDA’s Executive Director, Shelly R. Clark at 207-874-0801 or visit ww.mereda.org.
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MEREDA has released its 18th edition of the MEREDA Index. As a key economic indicator for Maine, the MEREDA Index measures the pulse of the state’s real estate industry and is the leading way our industry tracks changes in Maine’s real estate markets.
A measure of real estate activity designed to track changes in Maine’s real estate markets, the Index is a composite of nine seasonally adjusted measures reflecting both new development and transactions involving existing properties and it covers both the commercial and residential markets statewide. This most recent edition covers the year 2023. The MEREDA Index was tabulated by economist Dr. Charles Colgan and comes in at 114.1.
This latest edition of the MEREDA Index showed a decline of 1.5% between 2022 and 2023. The driver of the decline was the residential index, which declined 11.3% as interest rate increases being driven to offset inflation began to seriously bite into real estate markets. The commercial and construction components of the index both increased, by 23.5% in the former case and 2.3% in the latter case. These increases were not sufficient to offset the drops in residential activity.
To download a copy of the full report, please click here.
PORTLAND, Maine (July 15, 2024) – The Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Shannon Richards of Hay Runner, to President for 2024-2026.
Portland resident, Shannon Richards, has been elected as President of MEREDA for a two-year term. Born and bred in Maine, Shannon has been an artist and entrepreneur since she was young, spending the last 20-plus years in the practice of designing and building, manifesting a life centered around creation. Shannon has produced hundreds of custom homes, commercial spaces, pieces of furniture and fixtures.
Shannon is the founder of Hay Runner, a real estate development company that provides services related to residential and commercial real estate transactions, project management, design, construction, furnishing and produces design centric events. Hay Runner also provides brokerage services through its affiliation with Legacy Properties Sotheby’s International Realty.
An active member of MEREDA, Shannon recently served as a MEREDA Vice President, co-chaired MEREDA’s Conference Committee, and continues to serve on its Executive Committee. Shannon joined the MEREDA board in 2019 and that same year, was selected to receive one of two MEREDA’s Volunteer of the Year Awards. Shannon is also part of the Greater Portland Board of Realtors, the Maine Association of Realtors, and the National Association of Realtors.
“Shannon has been, and will continue to be, an invaluable asset to our volunteer organization. Her dedication and passion for the work she does is truly inspiring, and we are excited to continue working with her in this new capacity”, said Shelly R. Clark, MEREDA’s Executive Director.
In addition, MEREDA’s board of directors elected its 2024 / 2025 slate of officers which include President Shannon Richards of Hay Runner, Vice Presidents Gary Vogel of Drummond Woodsum, Jennifer Small of Malone Commercial Brokers, and Jason Favreau of BerryDunn, Treasurer Mark Stasium of Camden National Bank, and Secretary Shelly R. Clark, who also serves full time as MEREDA’s Executive Director. In addition, MEREDA’s board of directors elected its 2024 / 2025 slate of officers which include President Shannon Richards of Hay Runner, Vice Presidents Gary Vogel of Drummond Woodsum, Jennifer Small of Malone Commercial Brokers, and Jason Favreau of BerryDunn, Treasurer Mark Stasium of Camden National Bank, and Secretary Shelly R. Clark, who also serves full time as MEREDA’s Executive Director.
For further information, please contact Shelly R. Clark at 207-874-0801 or visit www.mereda.org.
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A Conversation with Mandy Reynolds and Sean Ireland from The Grant
From The Grant, Sean Ireland, a Principal at Windward Development, and Mandy Reynolds, a real estate development consultant, sit down with MEREDA President Shannon Richards for the first episode in Season 2 of MEREDA Matters – the podcast that puts you in the room with the people who are driving responsible development in Maine.
Ireland, who grew up in Phippsburg and Cumberland, talks about why he chose to work in Bath, the historic transformation happening there, and how his work focuses on small projects that can make a big difference. Reynolds, who grew up in Berwick, had never been to Bath until she started working with Ireland on development projects.
The pair go on to discuss their work on the Grant Building project, which began during the pandemic when the community needed a safe space to gather with high-speed internet capabilities and has become a mixed-use building with their co-working space Union + Co, four residential units, and three additional commercial spaces. Ireland and Reynolds share how this project represents a culmination of their principles for good development and give insight into how they made the project come together through a historic tax credit and the grit to self-perform the majority of the work.
The group also discusses Ireland and Reynolds’s next project, a redevelopment of the Stinson Seafood Cannery into the first purpose-built electric marina in the nation. Looking for inspiration for the future, the pair is taking a year-long working sabbatical to travel around the world to learn more about innovative community development projects and the Blue Economy.
The MEREDA Matters podcast is sponsored by Bangor Savings Bank and Clark Insurance, A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Company. A new episode will be released each month and each will feature new voices from the real estate and development industry.
By: James W. Dinkle, Executive Director, FirstPark
Maine’s economy is strong, and the proof is in the proverbial pudding. In fact, our state economy is one of the strongest in the country.
According to the most recent data, Maine’s economic output grew faster than the rest of New England at the end of 2023, with a massive uptick in goods and services. In the fourth quarter of last year, the output of goods and services in Maine hit an annual growth rate of 4.4 percent—the highest in the region and even above the national average (3.4 percent).
Not only that, but take-home pay is increasing in Maine, with personal income seeing a 4.7 percent growth rate. In the income department, only Rhode Island finishes higher in New England.
Why the jump in economic output and personal income? There are many factors, but various sectors of the Maine economy are growing. Industry is thriving, including the manufacturing sector. The subsidies for US-based manufacturing via the Inflation Reduction Act puts Maine in a unique position to benefit from homegrown manufacturing for years to come.
One of the key factors is evolution on a statewide scale. Maine-based companies and entire industries are innovating, hiring, and expanding. From research and development to new sales and marketing techniques, economic growth is only possible when businesses large and small take advantage of new opportunities and find ways to enter new markets. Prospects become clients and customers, while new goods and services flood the marketplace. And that is happening here.
Maine is relentlessly competing for residents, especially business owners, entrepreneurs, and innovators who diversify and make our economy stronger.
While the state saw massive population growth because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to keep selling the Maine way of life. This means selling places outside of Portland that are still viable destinations to live and work. People need to understand that our state is much, much more than “Vacationland,” although Mainers certainly find time to play, too.
As the saying goes, we are all in this together. I have worked in economic development at the state, regional and local levels for decades, and Maine has plenty to offer. Banding together, we can promote Maine’s strengths, such as quality of life, access to recreation, the four seasons and a bustling economy, too. Our state is a place for golf and skiing, but also business expansion, job creation and financial security. The same goes for offshore wind projects, sustainable energy initiatives and life sciences, plus shipping, receiving and manufacturing, to name just a few sectors.
Let’s not forget Maine’s potential. I serve as executive director of FirstPark in Oakland, so I see the value of “economic development” firsthand — not only the state’s recent accomplishments, but also the room for growth and business diversification. Fortunately, Maine’s collaborative spirit is tangible, with real estate developers and other constituencies often working together to fuel economic growth.
FirstPark came about through collaboration. Established in Oakland by the Kennebec Regional Development Authority (KRDA) — one of the state’s most unique economic development organizations — and supported by more than 20 member communities, FirstPark is a 285-acre campus that houses businesses of all sizes.
We currently have 148 acres of land available to be purchased, permitted by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Maine Department of Transportation, and Army Corps of Engineers. FirstPark is proud to offer 11 lots for sale, either individually or all together, with lot sizes ranging from seven acres to up to 50 acres. Businesses and buildings of all sizes are welcome, and the business park is not cost-prohibitive for start-up businesses and others looking to purchase land in Maine.
After all, Mainers are firm believers in entrepreneurship and proud supporters of local businesses. Some people may think that a small town like Oakland is cut off from the rest of the world, but Maine is more accessible than people tend to believe. Located 15 miles from the state capital, two miles west of the Kennebec River, and immediately adjacent to Interstate 95, FirstPark is conveniently connected to the rest of Maine and beyond. Whether businesses are trying to do work in Central Maine, the rest of New England or even Canada, there are easy transportation options in Oakland to take work anywhere.
The business park is more than a campus; we are a community. And that speaks to Maine in general. Our state has so much to offer when we work together as a community. If we sell the Maine way of life together, who could say “no” to that?
Jim Dinkle serves as Executive Director of FirstPark in Oakland, ME. https://firstpark.com/
Each year, the Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA) recognizes some of the state’s most “noteworthy and significant” real estate projects, completed in the previous year. The exemplary projects from across the state, completed in 2023, not only embody MEREDA’s belief in responsible real estate development, but also exemplify best practices in the industry, contributing to Maine’s economic growth by significant investment of resources and job creation statewide.
This year, MEREDA honored projects from Portland to Gardiner to Presque Isle, with each receiving special recognition at MEREDA’s 2024 Spring Conference on May 15th.
In a multi-part series exclusive to the Maine Real Estate Insider, we’ll provide an up-close look at the most notable commercial development projects of the past year that are helping to fuel Maine’s economy in terms of investment and job creation. MEREDA is proud to recognize responsible development based upon criteria including environmental sustainability, economic impact, energy efficiency, difficulty of the development, uniqueness, social impact and job creation.
MEREDA’s 2022 Top 7 recipients include:
University of Southern Maine Portland Commons Residence Hall and McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, Capstone Development Partners (Portland)
Maine Savings Amphitheater, Waterfront Concerts, LLC (Bangor)
Phoenix Flats, Community Housing of Maine (Portland)
Homeless Services Center, Developers Collaborative (Portland)
Northeastland Hotel, Developer (Presque Isle)
Johnson Hall Opera House, Johnson Hall Redevelopment, LLC (Gardiner)
The Armature at Hanover Works, Reveler Development (Portland)
Please join us this week in celebrating USM Portland Commons Residence Hall and McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success.
MEREDA: Describe the building and project.
This massive transformation of University of Southern Maine’s (USM) Portland campus included two connected facilities – the 218,000-square-foot, eight-story Portland Commons student residence and the 42,000-square-foot, five-story McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success – both centered on a one-acre green quad.
The Portland Commons Residence Hall is home to undergraduates in their second, third, or fourth year; graduate students; law students; and residential staff with a mix of single-occupancy rooms, studio apartments, and larger apartments with multiple bedrooms and bathrooms. Amenities include a courtyard, a variety of study and meeting rooms, interior gathering spaces, and indoor bike storage.
The building has four wings, two reaching five stories in height and two reaching eight stories in height — forming a parallelogram that encloses the semi-private residential courtyard and maximizes access to natural daylight and views for living units.
This first-ever, on-campus, Portland-based residence hall for USM will provide affordable housing in a market where inventory is low and expensive, reduce competition for scarce housing with Portland residents, and alleviate overcrowding in the Gorham Campus residence halls.
The McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success is a welcoming center of student life. The large scale of the building begins with the soaring south-facing Bath Savings Portico comprised of diagonal cross-laminated timber (CLT) columns to create a signature visual expression across the front façade. A broad gesture roughly 30 feet tall, 20 feet deep, and 200 feet long, the portico forms a “front porch” and covers a two-story mass timber-framed lobby. Enclosed entirely in a transparent curtain wall, this dramatic lobby is anchored by a monumental stone fireplace and soaring open stairs.
On the ground floor, the lobby is adjacent to a large dining common with a 254-seat capacity. The Double L Fireside Student Lounge, the University Store, and the Husky Brew provide more spaces to connect and study. The second floor is devoted entirely to career services, featuring the new home of the Career & Employment Hub with an office suite; a 4,500-square-foot multi-purpose room; private meeting rooms; and the Prentice Board Room. The top floor is devoted to Student Affairs, featuring the Student Diversity Center, with offices and various student lounge spaces.
These new campus facilities represent the pinnacle of sustainability and embraced renewable low-carbon building technologies, waste diversion, and strategies to maintain healthy living and working spaces. Portland Commons is the second largest Passive House residence hall in the United States and is projected to use 50% less energy than a standard modern building. The McGoldrick Center, with its large-scale 33.3-kW rooftop photovoltaic array and passive solar heating through a large south-facing glass façade, is pursuing LEED Gold certification. The building also incorporates corrugated metal and wood cladding materials, which are low carbon in their manufacture and shipping and can be recycled at the end of their long lifecycle. The facility is comprised of one-third mass timber and two-thirds structural steel framing, with low-carbon mass timber CLT and laminated lumber supports throughout as replacement for more carbon-intensive steel and concrete. Both buildings incorporate technologies such as energy-efficient lighting, water-efficient fixtures and daylight harvesting to further minimize impact.
MEREDA: What was the impetus for this project?
A 2019 Facilities Master Plan outlined a series of important planning and building initiatives to better prepare the University to attract and retain highly qualified students and faculty, transforming the local and state economies through scholarship, civic and cultural engagement, and innovation. The addition of new residential beds and a student center focused on career counseling and graduate success – both framing a new central quad – were the cornerstones of that master plan.
Fulfilling the aspirations of that master plan, the Portland Commons Residence Hall, McGoldrick Center for Career & Student Success, and L.L.Bean Green give the University a new campus heart that offers on-campus housing, dining amenities, and social and academic support spaces for all students. Surface parking that once occupied the site was relocated to a new garage, allowing the residence hall and student center to frame a large open lawn that has become the signature open space on the campus. With a design equally informed by all three pillars of sustainability, the new buildings and landscape enhance social equity with access and support for all; economic prosperity by providing compact, energy-efficient housing with a cost-effective price; and environmental stewardship by greatly reducing energy consumption through Passive House design, mass timber construction, and a renewable energy solar array on top of the McGoldrick Center.
MEREDA: That sounds like quite a process. How long were you in the planning stages before construction started?
PC Construction proposed with Capstone Development Partners on the project in July 2019 and were awarded the project in November 2019. The design-build planning process started in earnest in late December 2019. The original goal was to start construction in late summer 2020 but the pandemic impacted the preconstruction and design process and moved the construction start to March 2021. The planning process to delivery of the GMP was approximately 14 months.
MEREDA: Tell us about the most challenging aspect of getting this project completed.
Portland Commons and McGoldrick Center, plus a multi-level parking garage, were under construction by PC simultaneously on USM’s campus. Combined with the several other construction projects also underway in Portland, the availability of skilled tradespeople was a major challenge. To keep the USM projects on schedule, PC offset the work sequences for subcontractors to coordinate the needs of all three buildings without depleting each other’s resources.
Another challenge involved the relocation of the campus’s main steam line. The existing conditions differed from the as-builts, which required a redesign of the connections at either end of the steam line and the installation of a new condensate line. This unexpected work had to be completed before October 1 so that the campus heating system could be turned on for the winter season.
Lastly, the delivery of the prefabricated metal panels that formed the superstructure of Portland Commons became a supply chain issue, potentially putting the entire project schedule at risk. Electrical rough-in could not begin until the building was weather-tight, and since this delay would set back roof installation, the team made a major pivot to erect one wing at a time, rather than one floor of two wings at a time.
MEREDA: Something unexpected you learned along the way was….
Achieving Passive House certification could have been a lot more challenging than it turned out to be. Outstanding project teaming partners made certification possible.
MEREDA: Now that it’s complete, what feature of the project do you think makes it the most notable?
The expansive mass timber of the McGoldrick Center is impressive. Even though Maine is so well known for its extensive forestry industry, the trees in this area typically do not meet the structural requirements of mass timber. With one-third of the building comprised of mass timber, the building brings an exciting visual appeal while providing sustainable benefits. With Portland Commons, designing and constructing the second largest Passive House building at a university in the United States and a top-10 largest Passive House building anywhere in the country was incredibly exciting. This entire team will look back at the USM campus with pride for a long time to come.
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By: Justin Lamontagne, CCIM, SIOR, Partner | Designated Broker, The Dunham Group
The year was 2011, and a young, ambitious broker received a lead on a 30,000 SF industrial tenant in search of a simple warehouse with a few overhead doors and a loading dock. The broker swiftly compiled an inventory of 7-8 attractive options in the Greater Portland area and scheduled a property tour. Three months later, after some healthy negotiations and back-and-forth, a new lease was executed, leaving everyone satisfied with the experience and end-result.
Fast forward to today, the same broker with an identical requirement, cautiously explains to their tenant-client that the overall vacancy rate in Greater Portland is an unthinkable 0.66%. The inventory list and tour schedule are so limited that it now includes raw land, office buildings, and properties 30 miles from the preferred location. The tenant can’t believe there are no options for them to grow in Southern Maine, leading them to ask the broker for referrals out of state.
This dramatic anecdote is becoming all too common in today’s industrial sector. In simple terms, the lack of industrial supply in Southern Maine is detrimental to our economy. Analyzing this year’s Southern Maine Industrial Market Survey results, it’s shocking to note that of the 19 million SF in Greater Portland, a mere 125,000 SF is vacant. Even with sublet opportunities adding another 112,000 SF, the total available rate is a paltry 1.25%.
Expanding the geography of this year’s report to other parts of Southern Maine revealed that the supply/demand imbalance permeates throughout the region from York County to Androscoggin. Only Lewiston, among the 15 towns and cities, has what could be considered a “healthy” industrial market, where tenants might have some leverage. However, even there, the numbers are somewhat misleading, with virtually all inventory accounted for by 5-6 very large empty buildings. Indeed, a recent survey in Lewiston for a 7k SF industrial client uncovered exactly one suitable option, proving their reported 10%+- vacancy rate is deceivingly high.
So, what’s an industrial business to do? While new construction and land development remain options, they are costly and time-consuming endeavors. Therefore, I predict we’ll see more creative repurposing of office and retail spaces. This trend has already begun with some small success stories. And in 2024 we will have no choice but to consider if the interiors of empty office buildings or retail buildings can be gutted and otherwise retrofitted to accommodate industrial end-users. This concept’s success will depend on several factors falling into place, not the least of which is zoning. But for lower-impact tenants not requiring traditional taller ceilings and multiple loading docks, a single-story office building could serve as a decent warehouse with the right modifications.
Not surprisingly, industrial values, both for sale and lease, continue to appreciate dramatically. For the first time, average sale prices have surpassed $100/sf, reaching $104 based on over 25 industrial sales in the Greater Portland area. Smaller buildings under 10k SF regularly see prices at or above $150/sf, equaling replacement value. This proves that the often complicated and slow process of new construction is deterring end-users. And it further indicates that “shovel-ready” industrial land sites like the Innovation District at Scarborough Downs are the most successful model.
Lease prices are also on the rise, though not as dramatically as sale values. A 3% increase was calculated in 2023, but I anticipate a more significant increase in 2024. Most listed spaces on the market are now asking well above $10/sf NNN, reaching as high as $13-14/sf for smaller units, surpassing rates for Class B and low-A office spaces in many cases. This has led to sticker shock for industrial tenants, especially those new to the market or accustomed to years of rates near $5-6/sf. This push-back from tenants is partially accounting for the slower pace in lease rate increases. Unfortunately for them, basic supply and demand economic principles will usurp any heartburn tenants have looking at their real estate budgets.
My crystal ball isn’t insightful enough to project how to fix this problem. All I can do is identify the critical issue and hope that conditions improve for our local industrial businesses. And I can always fondly reminisce about the good ‘ole days of long inventory lists and property tours.
MEREDA is thrilled to announce that its Annual Strikes for Scholars Bowl-a-Thon Fundraiser will once again enable the organization to donate a total of $15,000 towards scholarships to Maine students entering the building trades. $5,000 designated towards scholarships will be provided to each of the following: Associated General Contractors of Maine’s Education Foundation, Associated Building and Contractors of Maine, and the ACE Mentor Program of Maine.
MEREDA believes strongly in empowering Maine students on their journey towards careers that resonate with our core values of fostering responsible development and ownership of real estate across the state. The Strikes for Scholars fundraiser not only allows us to contribute towards education but also serves as a beacon of support for students venturing into the building trades industry. Every dollar raised at the event directly benefits students as they pursue their studies and gain valuable experience in the field. Thank you to everyone who participated and supported this important cause – together, we are making a meaningful difference in the lives of aspiring professionals in Maine!
MEREDA began its scholarship program for students in the building trades and professions 12 years ago and has continued to grow and support the program. Since the fundraiser’s inception, MEREDA is proud to have raised and donated over $181,000 to deserving Maine students. This includes this year’s donation of $15,000!
We are deeply appreciative of everyone involved in this event, sharing our goal of supporting Maine’s students pursuing education related to construction, design, engineering, and architecture. Our Sponsors Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Daigle Commercial Group, and SERVPRO, as well as our bowling teams, and those who purchased raffle tickets!
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MEREDA has released its 18th edition of the MEREDA Index. A key economic indicator for the state of Maine, the latest edition of the MEREDA Index showed a decline of 1.5% between 2022 and 2023. The driver of the decline was the residential index, which declined 11.3% as interest rate increases being driven to offset inflation began to seriously bite into real estate markets. The commercial and construction components of the index both increased, by 23.5% in the former case and 2.3% in the latter case. These increases were not sufficient to offset the drops in residential activity.
The MEREDA Index is a measure of real estate activity designed to track changes in Maine’s real estate markets. The Index is a composite of nine seasonally adjusted measures reflecting both new development and transactions involving existing properties and it covers both the commercial and residential markets statewide. This most recent edition covers the year 2023. The MEREDA Index was tabulated by economist Dr. Charles Colgan.
