Why one of coastal Maine’s biggest business groups is closing

Some midcoast business owners and officials have expressed dismay about the upcoming closure of the Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce, which serves the Camden and Rockland areas and is one of the biggest business groups along Maine’s coast.

But community members also said that the traditional model of a chamber of commerce that collects dues and holds events and other programs to support local businesses has become increasingly outdated given the growing ease of getting information on the internet.

Founded in 2011 to represent a region it calls “The Jewel of the Maine Coast,” the chamber sent a letter to its members on Monday announcing its closure. It said that its revenue has declined sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic, and that its membership and event attendance have also been dropping.

Earlier in December, it had made an urgent appeal to members to raise $50,000 by Dec. 20 “to stabilize our finances and ensure we continue delivering impactful and strategic programs, advocacy, and resources that matter to our community.”

The group’s membership has fallen from a one-time peak of more than 1,000 — during its early years — to just 400 this year, according to President and CEO Shannon Landwehr.

“Over the years, we have reduced overhead, streamlined our operations, and adapted in every way we could imagine to support our members and our region. But even with these adjustments, we have arrived at a point where continuing as we are is no longer viable,” the group said in the letter this week.

Federal tax filings gathered by ProPublica show that the midcoast group’s annual revenue reached a high of $881,927 in 2014, before dropping and mostly hovering around $500,000 since then. It took a big dip to $302,282 in 2021 before climbing back up to $558,736 last year.

The group has suffered operating losses in most years since 2016, although it did have a positive margin last year. It has spent roughly $200,000 annually on employee salaries in recent years, according to its tax filings. Figures for this year were not available.

The group has had one of the largest annual budgets of local chambers along Maine’s coast, although it has not matched the revenue and spending of the Bar Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce, which brought in almost $700,000 in revenue in 2022. Some of Maine’s biggest chambers, in Portland and Waterville, each have annual revenue of more than $1 million.

The Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce has also struggled with leadership turnover in recent years, according to MaineBiz. Landwehr started her job in April after previously working for the banking giant Morgan Stanley, according to her LinkedIn page.

In an interview, Landwehr said the chamber’s financial and membership challenges have not been unique. Tax filings do indicate that a number of other Maine chambers have also suffered operating losses in recent years.  

In 2022, the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce had a deficit of over $140,000. In 2023, the Ellsworth Chamber of Commerce experienced almost a $45,000 loss. The Bucksport Chamber of Commerce closed in 2020.

Landwehr said that the decline has been happening for some time now, even before the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she didn’t know exactly why membership was declining, but the chamber understands businesses have to make financial decisions of their own. She declined to provide information on its annual budget.

The question, Landwehr said, is “How can we focus on addressing these economic shifts that we’ve all experienced, while also meeting the community where we are and helping to guide where we’re going from here?”

The midcoast chamber has provided a number of services for area businesses, including ribbon cuttings, regional publications, annual meetings, educational seminars and the recently created PortShare Promise Midcoast program, which helped the region manage the influx of tourists from cruise ships.

Gordon McAleer, the compliance director for Bixby Chocolate in Rockland, said the company has belonged to the chamber since 2013, and he’s sad to see it go. He said the chamber’s support helped the factory with retail support and uplifting the local economy.

“We hope, at some point, it may come back into full operation,” he said. “It’s been a good, great, fine advocate of business in the midcoast area.”

Numerous other businesses expressed dismay about the closure on a Rockland-area community Facebook page. In one comment, Todd Bross, the owner of Ruckus Donuts, suggested that the ease of access to information nowadays has rendered obsolete some of the services that chambers used to offer.

“Asking my smartphone a simple question about any aspect of a local community almost always answers my question immediately, and to the businesses I queried it cost them $0,” he said.

Landwehr and other local leaders said the closure is an opportunity for businesses in the Camden-Rockland area to find a better model for an organization to support their needs.

Rockland City Councilor Adam Lachman said he foresees that a “reenergized coalition of local businesses” will emerge from the chamber’s closure.

“Chambers of Commerce, including our local chamber, have faced longstanding fiscal challenges, exacerbated by the pandemic and societal changes. While this news is unfortunate, it represents a positive opportunity for us to build on the strength of the diverse, vibrant commerce in towns and cities across Knox County,” he said.

Bross recommended a “Chamber of Communication” that would promote the entirety of the community, not just the commercial aspects.

The chamber will suspend operations at the close of business on Friday.