Littleton Industrial Park

Littleton, NH used to be a one product town: shoes... according to Paul McGoldrick of the Littleton Industrial Development Corporation (LIDC). "For years, Littleton would vie with Berlin (NH) for the highest unemployment rate. The shoe business is cyclical in nature and we would experience high levels of employment and then high levels of unemployment.

Two major employers closed their doors in the Littleton area with about 700 jobs. They were faced with stiff foreign competition and after the initial shock many of us went to work to attempt to replace those lost jobs in an orderly fashion with industries with less cyclical swings and more diversification.
McGoldrick explained that LIDC's history of successful recruitment and industrial development began in the early 1950's as a "for-profit" industrial development corporation but activity had slowed during the 1960's.

In 1966, McGoldrick moved to Littleton from Boston and became active in the local Chamber of Commerce and its economic development subcommittee. He, and many others, as part of that committee's activity, approached the existing LIDC and persuaded them to transfer their name, purpose and resources to a restructured "non-profit" entity to be known as the non-profit Littleton Industrial Development Corporation. "This allowed LIDC to apply for government grants by virtue of being a non-profit, something they could not have done before," McGoldrick stated.

"When Paul Gilderson, former Director of the NH Department of Economic Development, would send us prospects," McGoldrick went on to explain, "we would show them a piece of land owned by a local farmer. Unfortunately, we couldn't tell them a firm price, discuss infrastructure such as roads, water or sewer, because we didn't own any land ourselves appropriate for industrial development."

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As a result, McGoldrick continued, no new businesses of any great significance started up in Littleton. "Gilderson was somewhat annoyed with us," McGoldrick said. "Basically, he told us that until we could make some firm offers of land and support infrastructure to businesses that he wouldn't refer any more prospects to us." That, he continued, was in 1972.

The directors of LIDC were determined to accomplish some industrial development for Littleton and came to the conclusion that they would have to follow Gilderson's advice and establish an industrial park. "In order to determine if we could actually make an industrial park work, we needed to have a study done to select a site (from 26 possibilities) and develop realistic cost estimates for land purchase and infrastructure."

Led by Arthur Folsom, executive director of the Littleton Chamber of Commerce, LIDC submitted a petition to the town warrant asking for $15,000 for a feasibility study for an industrial park. McGoldrick recounted that the proposal was not greeted with a great deal of enthusiasm by the selectmen. "They (the selectmen) and many other prominent individuals opposed it. It was defeated by a voice vote. We requested a standing vote, but that also lost and finally, we motioned for a secret ballot and the warrant article passed by one vote!"

With the feasibility study money in hand, an analysis of land appropriate for development as an industrial park was begun. "We, in conjunction with the selectmen, selected a piece of property that we felt offered the best qualities for the Park. It was a former sand and gravel lot near the sewer plant with power lines from Moore Dam (a nearby hydroelectric facility formerly owned by New England Power) running right through it.
In addition, McGoldrick pointed out that the power service would provide the lowest industrial electric rates in the state of New Hampshire because of the combination of access to low cost power and the municipal power department in Littleton.

"We were fortunate that Littleton had recently built a one million gallon water storage tank adjacent to and above the property so that adequate water and pressure was nearby." He went on to explain that the property was adjacent to a rail line that would make access easy for any potential park tenant. "The road access to the Park, admittedly was only fair," McGoldrick explained. "The access road ran through a residential area, and we have been working on this challenge since 1976. I am happy to say that a beautiful new bridge and access road was completed in June of 1995."

The original property (108 acres) was purchased for $68,000 in 1974, funded by $23,000 from a community fund drive and the balance of $45,000 from a Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) grant.

"With the purchase of the Park, we were ready to start talking seriously to prospects," McGoldrick went on. "The first significant prospect was the Burndy Corporation of Norwalk, CT." They built their first plant in Lincoln, NH, home of former Governor Sherman Adams," he explained. "Shortly after that, the Office of Economic Development brought the company to Littleton to look over the Park, because they (Burndy) were considering building a second plant."

In 1975, LIDC offered the company space in the new industrial park and concluded an agreement with Bumdy to build in Littleton. "Burndy agreed to build a 120,000 square foot building on 20 acres in the park," McGoldrick said. "LIDC agreed to make 'our best efforts' to bring water, power and sewer to this site as well as construct a brand new access road to their driveway."

The process of bringing all the elements together for the project was complex, McGoldrick said. "We calculated that for all the infrastructure - roads, water, sewer, etc. - we would need to spend about $300,000. We used a combination of sources, including the sale proceeds of the property, the sale of some additional gravel off the land for nearby road construction, town bonding and Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant as well as capital investment by the Littleton Water and Light Department spending $95,000 to bring the water from their storage tank above the property directly to the Burndy property line. Burndy opened their doors in 1976 and quickly grew to 125 employees and for the past decade, have been employing approximately 200 area citizens with an enviable record of non-existent layoffs. (Burndy is now a French owned company - Framatone Connectors-Burndy Electrical).

With the first tenant in, LIDC felt more confident about being able to attract new business to the area and the Park. "In fact, though, not much else happened until about 1981," he continued. "Basically, we had one business in place but we felt that we now needed to turn to the issue of letting others know we had this resource. Candidly, the Park and its activities were simply not very visible. We felt we needed some type of sign or other way of showing what we had and were accomplishing."

In 1981, Ken Grout moved to Littleton from Boston to retire. "After he arrived he started a small business making a product called After-Bite for black fly and other insect bites," McGoldrick continued. "The business grew and Grout eventually moved into office space in downtown:Littleton. He also became a director of LIDC and was active in the Chamber." McGoldrick went on to explain that Grout felt he needed more space for his business and felt that his needs and a viable demonstration of the industrial park's success could be accomplished simultaneously.

"Grout bought two lots in the Park that were visible from the adjacent 1-93 interstate. He initially put up a 15 thousand square foot building and later added 12,000 square feet. We all felt this was the best 'sign' in the Park: a visible, growing business." McGoldrick said. He continued by adding that in addition to the prominent building, LIDC also erected a large, well designed sign for the Park easily viewed from the busy interstate.

"With the money from the sale of land to Grout, we used some of it to extend water and sewer lines to the new business, but we spent the balance to hire a consultant to do a thorough analysis of the property to see how it could be used to its maximum advantage," McGoldrick explained. In addition, LIDC purchased an additional 70 acres adjacent to the existing Park to expand the Park's capacity - called Phase II. "We funded the purchase with a combination of FmHA grant funds for $40,000, and EDA grant for $24,000 and the balance from our own resources."

McGoldrick continued by explaining that the consultant projected that a park fully developed would cost approximately $740,000. "In 1984 and '85 we made application to EDA for $481,000, FmHA for $16,000 for power access only and $82,000 from the town of Littleton. That left us $176,000 short, so we went to the local banks, and using the undeveloped land in both Phase I and Phase II (with infrastructure eventually in place) as collateral, the three main street banks made the loan."

Shortly thereafter, a developer from Plymouth purchased a four acre lot to put up a commercial building on speculation. "The arrangement was to accept partial payment up front with other payments to be made as the developer sold or rented other bays in the building," McGoldrick said. "As it turned out, he rented the additional space in six to eight months which resulted in a total fulfillment of the purchase agreement fairly quickly."

Additional buyers soon came along during the same period including Schwan's Sales Enterprises (a door to door delivery service of frozen food products) which bought an acre and a half of land and constructed a 6,000 square foot building. In 1986, Harrison Publishing from Sugar Hill moved to the Park and constructed a 15,000 square foot building. "We had pretty much paid off the original bank loan by selling property in the Park," McGoldrick explained, "when in the late 80's, Montgomery Wire from Connecticut decided to move to New Hampshire."

"They were looking for space in towns from Haverhill northward on both sides of the Connecticut River. They visited Littleton and purchased 15 acres and built an 85,000 square foot building with approvals in place to expand to 105,000 square foot. That was the start of Montgomery Wire, which during construction was sold to a German firm and today employs nearly 100 area people" (and is now owned by an Israeli firm).

"As part of developing the Park to its full potential we had been working on a project to improve access since 1980," he continued. "We funded the preliminary engineering studies with $5,000 of our own money and $15,000 from EDA. The early estimates of the improvement indicated that the land purchase and road building portion would cost about $900,000 and the replacement bridge (which would have been required with or without the Park in place) might cost $1.2 million with 95% of that cost qualifying for federal and state contributions. Initial engineering studies were required by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and $103,000 was put forth, $50,000 from LIDC and $53,000 from the Town of Littleton.

It was decided that the access road would qualify for an EDA grant and therefore the total project was centralized under a $2.5 million access road, Park expansion and improvement project. This is funded primarily with a $570,000 bond issue from the town, $350,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, an LIDC contribution of $50,000 and $1.5 million in EDA facility improvement and expansion funding with an additional small grant from FmHA. "This has been a major project for us," McGoldrick said, "and could not have been accomplished without the longstanding, patient and effective support of our Congressional Delegation in Washington and several Governors as well as the superlative cooperation of the NH Department of Transportation on this project."

McGoldrick pointed out that LIDC's efforts were not restricted to expansion within the Park. "The shoe manufacturing buildings in the town had been vacant since about 1979. In late 1983, LIDC, in conjunction with a subcommittee of the Littleton Area Chamber of Commerce, established Industry Weekend. The committee invited over 100 New Hampshire corporations (and about five from Canada) to visit and be exposed to an in depth review of our assets with particular emphasis on our very large, loyal and available labor force. We had quality buildings existing and fully serviced land in our Industrial Park. Only five companies came to visit, but one was Hitchiner Manufacturing from Milford, New Hampshire. Their vice president, Jack Noga, who often skied at Cannon Mountain, came and saw the very real potential in our vacant shoe plants and very low industrial power rates (approximately 35% less than other comparable communities serviced by Public Service of New Hampshire).

In April of 1984 the decision was made to open a plant in Littleton and on July 1st ribbons were being cut by past Governor Sherman Adams and then current Governor John Sununu. By 1990, Hitchiner Employment had grown to approximately 300 people.

The success with Hitchiner was not limited to only one location, according to McGoldrick. "In 1993, Hitchiner won a contract to produce golf clubs and automobile rocker arms. They bought the other vacant shoe plant in the area and hired in excess of 400 individuals during the calendar year 1994 (Then the current total of both plants was 750). LIDC was not through with its efforts to expand business in Littleton.

"A recent addition was Genfoot America, a Canadian company that opened operations here in Littleton," McGoldrick said. Under the direction of the then town manager and with the fantastic support of the Office of State Planning led by Jeff Taylor, Genfoot America, the Town of Littleton and LIDC (non-profit) qualified for a CDBG grant for LIDC to purchase the building and to extend a $190,000 low interest loan to Genfoot America.

The rental income (and ultimate sale proceeds) of the building as well as the monthly payments on the $190,000 loan were funneled into a revolving loan fund which in turn will be available for further loans to area businesses.
An original condition for the CDBG availability to Genfoot was for them to hire 60 new employees of low or moderate income status within three years. "After one year, April, 1994, Genfoot America had hired 100 people, significantly exceeding all expectations," McGoldrick said.

In 1994 the Roadway Package Systems opened an 8,000 square foot terminal and currently are well in excess of their business plan projections. They have sufficient land to double the size of their facility and currently have 12 employed.

During late 1994, LIDC cooperated with White Mountain Stitching which employed 80 area residents scattered in three locations. LIDC participated in a land purchase (five acres and former residence) at the south end of the Industrial Park and White Mountain Stitching broke ground in March, 1995, on a 16,000 square foot building with an expected expansion of employment to 120 based on a significant increase in operating efficiencies. They will use the historic red brick farm house as a sales and administrative office facility.

The Town of Littleton transferred 19.5 acres to LIDC at a special town meeting on December 18, 1997, for the purpose of allowing LIDC to negotiate directly with Littleton Coin Company. The transfer allowed Littleton Coin Company to initiate construction of a new 64,000 square foot building in April of 1998 which was completed March, 1999. The building can be expanded to 110,000 square feet. Littleton Coin expects to further expand its existing 300 employee group to a projected 500 within five years.

A second building was the first phase of the Rotobec plant. Rotobec is a Canadian company that has had an expanding presence in Littleton growing to 3,000 square feet and five employees in a rented space. They purchased 3.5 acres in the Park, received their building permit and broke ground in the spring of 1998 on an initial 10,000 square foot building with a location capability of expanding to 30,000 square feet. We expect to see their employment increase to 15-20 individuals.

A small Rhode Island machine shop company, Greenville Screw, was very desirous of locating in the Littleton Industrial Park. Their initial building is 6,000 square feet and employs 4 employees. They are very excited about the prospects of operating in Littleton, New Hampshire.

In total there are now fourteen buildings employing in excess of 1,200 people every day. The property owners pay approximately $350,000 per year in taxes to the community (in excess of $3,500,000 since Burndy opened in 1976). We estimate that 1,000 individuals from Vermont work in the Littleton area each day!

McGoldrick had some advice for other communities planning to consider an industrial park. "If I could offer a specific theme for people thinking about doing something like we've done, it's persistence," he said. "You need a volunteer group that is totally committed to this project without any expectation of personal gain whatsoever. There will be many, many frustrations and those involved in this effort should be prepared for a great deal of harsh, tough, even vitriolic criticism when things don't go well at first."

McGoldrick went on to explain that an important element of LIDC's success was always the stability of the "core group" of 15-20 directors. "We haven't had much turnover in the basic core group often to fifteen people (directors) over the years," he explained. "That consistency and stability has been an important element in our success to date and will continue to be so as we move forward."

For More Information about LIDC, Contact:
Greg Eastman, President
93 Main St.
Littleton, NH 03561
Phone:603-444-3975

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