BELFAST — Expansions by two Belfast businesses that were heralded earlier this year and given city-sponsorship for grant applications totalling over a half-million dollars have been taken off the table at the request of the businesses, according to Belfast Economic Development Director Thomas Kittredge.

The City Council in January authorized three applications to the state-administered Community Development Block Grant program totaling $900,000.

Two of these were under the Economic Development Program including $250,000 for Belfast-based window manufacturer Mathews Brothers and $500,000 for seafood wholesaler Maine Maritime Products, a subsidiary of Massachusetts-based Ipswich Maritime Products that operates a processing and distribution facility in Belfast.

At the time of the announcements, Mathews Bros. President Scott Hawthorne spoke of a major contract with a glass company and "groundbreaking technology" that would require an expansion of the company's manufacturing facility on Perkins Road. Though he declined to give specifics about the product itself, he made the bold claim that it would "change the way you think about windows."

Later that month, Maine Maritime Products pitched a million-dollar expansion of its wholesale facility in the Belfast Business Park that would have included the purchase of a piece of high tech equipment for extracting meat from shellfish. The city signed on as a sponsor for a $500,000 grant application.

The third application sought $150,000 through the Micro-Enterprise Assistance Program for micro-loans to businesses with five-or-fewer employees.

Under the requirements of the grant, MMP and Mathews Bros. would have had to put up matching funds equal to the amount of the award, and additionally create one full-time job for every $30,000 in state funding.

According to George Delaney, that was one of several factors that contributed to the decision not to apply.

"It’s a lot of money and it’s great that they’re willing to give it to us," he said. "But it’s not without stings attached and I just didn't think this was the year for us to pull that off."

Under the job-creation provision of the grant, MMP would have had to add 19 full-time positions.

"There wasn't anything with the city," he said. "We were spread thin going into it, and got spread even thinner since then.”

Kittredge echoed Delaney's sentiment. The state invited applications for all three proposals based on the initial letters of intent, he said, but the decision not to apply on behalf of MMP and Mathews Bros. came purely in response to the requests from the companies. 

Kittredge said he did submit the micro-loan application and expects to learn the outcome from the state within several weeks.

PenBay Pilot attempted to contact Mathews Bros. President Scott Hawthorne several times for comment about the grant, but as of Friday morning had not received a reply.

On Wednesday, however, Hawthorne told the Belfast Planning Board about an apparently unrelated plan to put the company's former Spring Street showroom back to use. The building has been vacant for five years and at one time topped a list of potential venues for a performing arts and events center.

Hawthorne told the board the building would serve as the company's sales office and "education center," and would also be used for some manufacturing.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com