BELFAST – Last month Coastal Farms and Foods representatives announced plans to close the two-year-old food processing and storage business. The reasons: debt and a poor blueberry season in 2013. Tenants of the facility’s commercial kitchen were asked to leave by the end of April. The company’s website displayed a notice that the business was closing. 

On Tuesday, however, Wayne Snyder a member CFF’s management team, said the company may be on the verge of a deal to keep the wheels turning on the nascent Midcoast food hub.

“It looks like we have an agreement to sell the blueberry side of the business,” he said, referring to the industrial berry processing line and deep freezer that occupy the south side of the company’s 60,000 square foot Route 1 facility..

If the deal goes through, Snyder said CFF would still have to “address a financial shortfall” in the remaining portion of the business, which includes a commercial kitchen and food storage.

From its inception, Coastal Farms and Foods has essentially been two businesses under one roof. Jan Anderson, who initially conceived of the business, wagered that local farmers would grow more if they had a place to store their produce. She likewise saw an opportunity for small food entrepreneurs to jumpstart their businesses with access a shared commercial kitchen.

Anderson teamed up with Tony Kelly, a veteran of the blueberry processing industry for what would turn out to be a joint venture, and enlisted Snyder, a retired commercial real estate developer, to round out CFF’s management team. 

Speaking in early 2013, Anderson said hitching the local food hub to the tried-and-true business of blueberry processing was a way to get investors on board. Ironically, it was problems on blueberry processing side that brought CFF to the brink last month.

If CFF can sell the blueberry business, Snyder said he and Anderson would turn their focus to the food preparation and storage wing. Following last month’s announcement, many who were renting storage space at Coastal Farms moved out, Snyder said. If the business were to continue, he said, some of them could come back.

The remainder of the management team — Snyder said Kelly, who managed the blueberry processing side of the business, was laid off last September — might continue to be involved with CFF in the future, or alternately seek a buyer for the remaining portion of the business. As of Tuesday, that decision appeared to be still several large steps away.

“Our real goal here is to have a food hub in this building in Belfast going forward,” he said, “because it seemed like it was meeting the needs of people and growing.”

The news CFF’s imminent closure last month came as a shock to many residents, including Peter Wilkinson and Maryjean Crowe of Belfast who subsequently started a fundraising campaign to help pay off some of CFF’s debts.

"When we heard about it we were stunned,” Wilkinson said. “We thought, this has to be a mistake. It would be like if Front Street Shipyard was suddenly to close. That's how surprised we were."

Snyder said CFF has received some donations from individuals.

“It’s in a volume that doesn’t solve all our major problems, but it gives us light going forward,” he said.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com