Briefcase
From staff and news services
November 13, 2009
Downtown Portland lauds UNE, two local businesses
The University of New England and two businesses were honored for helping to develop Portland's economic vitality.
The awards were presented by the Downtown Portland Corporation on Wednesday to UNE, Kepware Technologies and BioProcessing Inc.
The event took place at UNE's College of Pharmacy in Portland.
UNE received the 2009 Economic Development Achievement award in recognition of its new College of Pharmacy, an investment of $17 million in a 48,000-square-foot building built to LEED sustainability standards.
The first class of 100 pharmacy students enrolled this fall at the academic and research facility.
Kepware received the 2009 Business of the Year award. The 14-year-old company, with more than 45 employees, operates downtown and is considered a world leader in communications software.
The company recently established the Kepware scholarship in computer science at the University of Maine.
BioProcessing Inc. received the 2009 Small Business of the Year award. The company, founded in 1991, makes specialized raw materials for diagnostic use.
The company moved from Scarborough to Riverside Street in Portland three years ago and built a facility with state-of-the-art cell culture laboratories. It has 20 employees.
National real estate firm acquires Maine business
R.J. Finlay & Co. LLC has purchased Keiser Industries Inc. of Oxford, one of New England's leading manufacturers of modular buildings.
Keiser's significant market share of residential modular construction, coupled with its leadership in green and sustainable building practices, made it an attractive acquisition for R.J. Finlay & Co., a national real estate firm based in Milford, N.H.
Keiser and R.J. Finlay & Co. will work with project owners, developers and others to determine how modular construction can let owners of multi-family and commercial developments maximize their return on investment.
Keiser has more than 100 trained workers and an 80,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxford.
