SEARSPORT – GAC Chemical Corp. is seeking approval to construct two new buildings within its 153-acre Kidder Point complex. The first would allow the company to expand existing production of a chemical used in paper mills while the second would house a new facet of GAC's business: pigments.

The two buildings are the subject of a special planning board meeting to be held Sept. 28. 

David Colter, president of GAC, said the foray into pigment is a joint venture with a company in Mexico, which he said will provide the technology for the new operation. The end product, described in documentation as a "water-based non-hazardous pigment used in Maine paper mills and latex paint industry," would be sold nationally through wholesalers or directly to companies for industrial applications, Colter said.

The company is seeking to erect a 2,400-square-foot, 37-foot-tall steel-frame building for the pigment processing. Pending permission from the town, Colter said the new facet of the business should be operating by the first quarter of next year.

GAC expects the expansion to add eight new full-time employees to its current roster of 54. 

Colter described GAC's products as generally serving three areas: wastewater treatment, food and pharmaceutical uses, and pulp and paper production.

In addition to the pigment facility, GAC is requesting to build a 1,000-square-foot, 20-foot-tall woodframe expansion to a building currently used to make a urea-based product for wastewater treatment. Colter said the addition would take some pressure off the gradually expanding facility. 

"We're just kind of cramped for space in that area," he said. "We could have done that [addition] next year, but we wanted to take advantage of this audience with the Planning Board."