GORHAM – Retail giant Amazon may be coming to Gorham soon in a big way.

The company entered into a purchase and sale agreement with town officials last month to buy a 92-acre parcel off Main Street for about $4 million, but officials and a company spokesperson said it’s far too early to discuss plans in detail.

The town council moved to approve the agreement at its Aug. 19 meeting. Thomas Poirier, Gorham’s director of community development, said the land is one of two major parcels the town bought about five years ago, just prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

At the time, Poirier said, the town was looking to diversify its tax base. 

“There was no industrial land available, so the town needed to basically put some industrial land on the market,” he said.

The other parcel, located just south of the land Amazon is buying, has already been developed into an industrial park that is nearly full, Poirier said. 

But it’s not clear just what Amazon plans to do there. Last month, the company opened a shipping hub up in Caribou, but otherwise has no presence in Maine. The land has been zoned for industrial use for the past 20 years, but Poirier said so far the company has not requested any permits or submitted any plans to state or local officials.

Mike Murphy, a spokesperson for Amazon, also declined to discuss specific plans. 

“We’re always exploring the possibility of opening operations facilities – from small to large in scale – in communities across the U.S.,” he said. “Nothing is finalized in Gorham yet, and we’ll share more if additional progress is made and we have something confirmed to announce.”

Poirier said the property Amazon is looking at has been through two other purchase and sale agreements, but the tenants in both cases backed out for various reasons.

“This is not something new,” he said. “The council has done this a number of times.”

If Amazon completes the purchase, Poirier said, the benefits to the town are obvious. 

“How does that help Gorham? I think a diversified tax base, jobs, property tax, all those things,” he said.