John Hathaway, owner of Shucks Maine Lobster, has plans to build a new facility off Route 237 in the Olde Canal Place Industrial Park, an area that has had difficulty attracting new business in previous years. Hathaway plans to build an approximate 30,000 square foot building. Shucks would occupy 18,000 square feet, and the company is considering leasing the remaining square footage to another tenant.

Maine Sustainable Seafood LLC, the production arm for Shucks, uses an innovative technology called high pressure processing to loosen raw lobster meat from the shell. Originally developed to kill bacteria in packaged food, the technique uses water pressure to almost instantaneously kill the lobsters and provide raw meat which has an impressive shelf life of nearly 45 days. The process has earned the “Certified Sustainable” label from the Marine Stewardship Council.

In his plant proposal, Hathaway stated he is looking to move to Gorham to create production jobs and to be closer to the 40+ current employees who live in the area. The company, based out of Richmond, Maine, also produces fresh-cooked and flash-frozen lobster for markets across the world.