BUCKSPORT, Maine — An auction has been set for March 24 for equipment at the former Verso Paper mill.
An auction firm called Biditup, which bills itself as “an industrial assets company,” has posted information about the auction at its website, www.biditup.com. Items that will be available include “paper making equipment, machine shop & roll making, fabrication, huge laboratory, overhead cranes, plant support equipment and more,” according to the online listing.
Dozens of photos of equipment that will put up for bid are posted on the auction firm’s site. More common items such as pickup trucks, forklifts, welders, metal lockers, tool cabinets and table saws are among the items shown.
Dave Milan, Bucksport’s economic development director, said Wednesday that the town has been searching for companies that may be interested in re-starting the facility as a paper mill. Officials with scrap metal dealer AIM, which completed its purchase of the mill site from Verso in January, have said they would be willing to sell the property for more than the $60 million that they paid for it.
But as more time passes since Verso announced last October that it was closing the mill, the fewer candidates there seem to be for resuming papermaking operations at the 250-acre site, according to Milan. The auction of the equipment likely will eliminate that possibility entirely, he said.
MIlan has been telling people that, if any paper company wants to put forward an offer on the property, the auction date of March 24 is the “drop dead” date for doing so.
“At that point, it would probably become cost prohibitive to reopen it as a mill,” Milan said, referring to the expense of purchasing new items to replace the ones auctioned off. “This is just one more chapter in the book of the history of the mill.”
Milan added that, even if the site’s days as a paper mill are over, the town will continue to work with AIM to redevelop the waterfront property for another commercial use.
A voicemail message left Wednesday for Jeff McGlin, AIM’s U.S. vice president for development, was not returned.
The auction, which also will be accessible to bidders online via webcast, will start at 9 a.m., Tuesday, March 24, at the former mill site at 2 River Road. Previews of the items will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday March 19, Friday March 20, and Monday March 23, or by appointment, according to the posting.
More information on the auction is available by contacting Biditup at 1-818-508-7034.
