PORTLAND, Maine — Three industrial asset liquidators have purchased UPM-Kymmene Inc.’s shuttered Madison Paper mill for an undisclosed price, saying they plan to sell off some assets and later market the property to industrial users.
Mill owners UPM and New York Times Co. subsidiary Northern SC Paper Corp. announced the sale Friday to a joint venture of New Mill Capital Holdings of New York, Perry Videx of New Jersey and Infinity Asset Solutions of Toronto. The sale of the mill equipment and land closed Dec. 29.
“We are excited to be the new owners of the Madison mill and look forward to working with local and state officials to identify new uses for the mill site,” Gregory Schain, principal of New Mill Capital Holdings, said in a prepared statement. “Bringing new economic life to the property is a key component to this investment for us, and we feel the site’s ample infrastructure and the strong area labor force will be attractive for new industries.”
The mill stopped production in May, laying off 214 workers, and was Maine’s fifth major paper mill closure in three years.
The new owners said they plan to sell off some assets and demolish some structures that are obsolete, but one member of the partnership said the relatively new mill has promise.
“Because most of the mill was built in 1980, both the buildings and equipment assets are among the newest of any shuttered paper mill in the Northeast,” David Goodman, executive vice president of Perry Videx, said in a prepared statement. “Additionally, they have been maintained extremely well over the years.”
After the sales and demolition process, representatives of the group said they plan to market the property for “alternative industrial uses,” noting the site has desirable attributes for heavy industry, such as natural gas connections and nearby electricity generation.
The Madison mill owners said they are still marketing two connected hydropower plants that are capable of generating 27 megawatts of power.
New Mill Capital said it has acquired over 11 million square feet of vacant industrial plants since 2011, “with the vast majority being put back to productive use.”
The company handled the auction of the shuttered Old Town Fuel and Fiber plant in April 2015 and bought and remarketed a shuttered Hostess Bakery site in Biddeford, bringing in a FedEx distribution facility.