Jim Howard

Building for the future…. Mindful of giving back to the community

JIM HOWARD grew up in Bowdoinham and left home at 15, and ended up staying with his best friend, Glenn Jameson, and his parents, Elaine and Robert, in Topsham.  DARCIE MOORE / THE TIMES RECORD

Local developer and commercial real estate powerhouse Jim Howard remembers his first job, working 45 hours per week managing two local gas stations while still going to high school.

Howard, now president and CEO of the Topsham-based Priority Group, LLC, owns 27 real estate holding companies and the operating company that owns and runs the new Rusty’s Market in Topsham. Howard also has been a key player in the redevelopment at the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.

Howard, 49, grew up in Bowdoinham and left home at 15, and ended up staying with his best friend, Glenn Jameson, and his parents, Elaine and Robert, in Topsham for four years.

He worked 45 hours per week all during high school, pumping gas and managing the Aamco Lido station on Main Street in Topsham where the town hall is now, and also managing another station once located at the end of the runway on the former Brunswick Naval Air Station.

“And (I) went home, did my homework for school and went to school the next day, and did that over and over,” Howard said. He left that job two months before his graduation to focus on schoolwork, and graduated from Mt. Ararat High School in 1983.