Pine Tree Networks announces sale of Gray office building

Gray--As reported in The Monument on December 20, 2001, Pine Tree Networks decided to relocate their corporate offices from Gray to Bar Mills and Portland when they purchased the Saco River Telephone Company. Pine Tree Networks still wanted to continue to serve customers from their location at 15 Shaker Road in Gray, since the company has had offices there for one hundred years. They have since been seeking property to lease.

It was announced on March 25 that the company will be signing a purchase and sale agreement with Gorrill-Palmer Consulting Engineers, Inc., also of Gray Village, to sell the building to the consulting engineering firm but lease back several offices to Pine Tree Networks.

Pine Tree Networks’ President Rob Souza said, "This is a great fit for all concerned. Our ongoing commitment to the area continues just where it started, along with the other Gray service buildings which we still continue to own and operate." The sale does not include the dial office and maintenance facility on the Gray Campus at 13 Shaker Road, nor does it affect the dial offices in West Gray and New Gloucester, still under Pine Tree Networks’ ownership.

Al Palmer of Gorrill-Palmer is also pleased with the arrangement. "We are happy we found a place so we can stay in the Village," said. "We’re outgrowing the place we’re in, and we wanted to stay here."

"The sale to a local firm will maintain the "community" feel of the building via the presence of a local company. Certainly, my understanding is that they like the building and have no immediate plans to change the building's appearance," said Trevor Jones of Pine Tree Networks.

Founded in 1899 as The Pine Tree Telephone and Telegraph Company, Pine Tree Networks provides telecommunications and other related services to customers in Gray and New Gloucester, as well as business customers in Greater Portland and Lewiston/Auburn. In Southern Maine, through Saco River Telephone Company, customers are also served in Bar Mills, Buxton, Hollis, and Waterboro.