Company donates building to Caribou

[mastertax07]

In 1992, the Caribou Development Corp. purchased what was then the former Brooks Pharmacy Building at 52 Sweden St. to donate to Glen Willette, an entrepreneur who had formed a software development company that later became known as ATX.

Fourteen years later, ATX was acquired by CCH Small Firm Services, a Wolters Kluwer company, and continued operations in Caribou. After layoffs late last year affecting about 80 of its workers, ATX relocated its software development team from 52 Sweden St. to 63 Sweden St., where it has invested in extensive site renovations.

Late last week, CCH Small Firm Services group gave the 52 Sweden St. building back to the city, and the city is working to pay it forward by giving the 2,400-square-foot facility to a developing technology company.

ATX supplies tax preparation, accounting and tax research software to tax professionals and CPAs throughout the U.S. CCH Small Firm Services encompasses professional tax and accounting software offered under the ATX and TaxWise brands and professional tax research software offered under the Kleinrock brand.

While they continue to renovate their new location, officials from CCH Small Firm Services said they also wanted to continue to invest in the city.

"In donating this building, we wanted to show our continuing support for the economy of Caribou as part of our continuing involvement in the community," Jeff Gramlich, president of CCH Small Firm Services, said in a written statement.

Gramlich was in Caribou last week to present the keys to the building to Caribou City Manager Steven Buck.

Buck noted that the employees of CCH Small Firm Services "provide a technology-based foundation, diversity and strength in the heart of our downtown."

He noted that city officials viewed the donation as "extremely generous and insightful by the company."

Buck said the Caribou Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Northern Maine Finance Authority were working to turn the facility over to a local high-tech-oriented call center and said they expected the new business to hire a number of former ATX call center technicians who were laid off in December.

Officials would not disclose the name of the new business.

[kcjenkins]

As I understand it, that is the group of former ATX tech folks that have formed a Support Helpline service. Ironic, isn't it, that they will now benefit from the CCH donation of the building that they worked in before CCH fired them?

[Mel in Hawaii]

What doesn't make any sense to me is that I thought long ago, ATX had spun off a different operation in that building. Guess I must have misunderstood GW when he was telling me about that. I also don't like how the article was written as the company was already known as ATX when it moved to Caribou from Washburn, LONG before it moved to Caribou. It did change from ATX to ATX II or something like that. They didn't even spell his name correctly either.