The former B&M Baked Beans factory on Beanpot Circle in Portland will soon be the permanent home to Northeastern University’s Roux Institute.
The university broke ground today on the 300,000-square-foot campus that will be the institute’s permanent home. Right now, the university leases space for the institute from the WEX headquarters on Fore Street.
“The potential that is available with a technology and life-sciences-based economy, driven by people and innovation and early-stage companies is so great that this campus represents an opportunity to really grow and expand consistent with our mission and the impact for the people of Maine and for our shared future,” said Chris Mallett, the institute’s CEO.
The institute is geared toward innovation in the tech sector by educating graduate students on emerging technology and acting as a business incubator for tech startups.
The institute first came to Maine in 2020, driven in part by a $100 million investment from Maine technology entrepreneurs David and Barbara Roux. On Friday, David Roux noted that the idea of bringing such a project to Maine raised a few eyebrows at first.
“The concept was really very simple: Let’s combine in one place, maybe many thought an unlikely place, advanced research on modern technology, graduate education and integrated entrepreneurship,” Roux said. “Now, four years later, we have some results, and it’s now obvious that we’re doing the right thing in the right place at the right time.”
Those results include 340 students who have already graduated, and 800 who are enrolled at the institute right now. Mallett said the university expects that number to soar to 2,000 enrolled students when the project is finished in 2028.
Along with student enrollment, the institute has also helped 70 companies get off the ground in the last three years alone, and the university expects to see 50-100 new startups operating on the renovated property.
When done, the new campus will include the 58,000 square-foot former baked beans factory, which will be renovated. Next to it, in what is now a vast empty lot, the university will build a 245,000 square-foot building to be called the Alfond Center, named after the Portland-based Harold Alfond Foundation, which along with David and Barbara Roux is contributing to the funding for the new campus.
“We saw, that for Maine to become, and our nation to stay competitive and prosperous, new models of higher education in science, technology (and) math were necessary,” said Greg Powell, CEO of Alfond. “They were essential, and experiential learning in sync with workplace demands of new and existing businesses with them, working with them, was a model of education more needed than ever. Northeastern University and its Roux Institute is all of that and more.”
Local and state officials, including Senate President Troy Jackson (D-Aroostook) and Portland Mayor Mark Dion were on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony. Dion addressed the crowd, saying the institute fit in with Maine’s pragmatic approach to getting things done.
“Every day, people across Maine are reinventing this state, in their communities, in their households, at their place of work,” he said. “It’s what we do, and I think Roux is symbolic of that cultural ethic that we will be solving new problems, complex problems, one day at a time, to meet the needs of this state and the New England region.”
Mallett said construction is expected to be complete in Late 2027, or early 2028 at the latest. The university expects to begin holding classes there in 2028.