Multiple groups submitted bids for the shuttered Great Northern Paper mill before an 11 a.m. Monday deadline, setting up a competitive auction Tuesday to determine the mill’s fate.
Randy Creswell, an attorney representing GNP bankruptcy trustee Pasquale “Pat” Perrino, confirmed Monday the trustee received multiple bids of at least $2.9 million that will compete with GNP Acquisition, a firm set up by the president of the auction and appraisal firm Capital Recovery Group.
The identities of those bidding on the property will not be known until a public auction starting at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Penobscot County Probate Court. A hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. to consider approval of a sale agreement that comes out of the auction.
The subsidiary of Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners, which owns hydroelectric dams in Millinocket and East Millinocket, filed a response Monday to the trustee’s motion to sell the mill, seeking to clarify the sale would not affect its existing easements or nearby property. It was the only party to file a response to the motion by a 4 p.m. Monday deadline.
The bidders could include a subsidiary of the Montreal-based AIM Development and the South Carolina-based packaging company Sonoco, which both had attorneys represent them in the case after the schedule for the sale was set in mid-November.
AIM last year purchased and demolished a former Verso mill in Sartell, Minnesota, to redevelop the site. Sonoco produces uncoated recycled paperboard among its other packaging products.
The trustee in the GNP bankruptcy case previously said the mill had 12 potential buyers with four interested in restarting the mill.
Creswell did not confirm the number of bidders who submitted offers by Monday morning’s deadline.