The long-awaited sale and restart of the dormant Hampden trash plant has been delayed again.
The Municipal Review Committee secured ownership of the Hampden facility — which has been closed for more than two years — in August and was set to close on a deal to sell the controlling interest in the plant’s operations to a New York-based investment firm on Jan. 25.
But that deadline won’t be met, pushing the parties to the end of their exclusivity period and marking the latest setback in getting the multimillion-dollar facility back online.
Before it bought the Hampden plant last summer, the Municipal Review Committee said it had chosen the New York investment firm Revere Capital Advisors as its financial partner to help it restart the facility.
The plan was for Revere to acquire a majority stake in Municipal Waste Solutions LLC — the company formed after the Municipal Review Committee bought the Hampden plant — on or before Jan. 25. Last week, after a special meeting of the Municipal Review Committee’s board, its president Karen Fussell said that the deadline will not be met.
hampden trash plant sale woes
In a statement Tuesday, Fussell said the latest delay in the sale stems from Maine Department of Environmental Protection permits not yet being transferred to Municipal Waste Solutions, as well as a clarification of compliance requirements with the agency that have not been secured.
As a result, Revere will forfeit the $150,000 deposit it made to the Municipal Review Committee to move the closing date to Jan. 25.
In December, during the Municipal Review Committee’s year-end meeting, it was revealed that while Revere has some cash on hand, the investment firm’s approach to funding the Hampden facility is to lead a “consortium” of investors, Pat Daly, a senior managing director at Revere, said at the meeting.
Since Revere is leading a group of investors, those investors need to see that the facility will be profitable, and the profitability depends on securing key changes to the facility’s permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Nigel Ekern, Revere Capital Advisors’ chief operating officer, said during the December meeting.
Those changes have not been given by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, Fussell said Tuesday.
The Municipal Review Committee is set to meet Wednesday and is expected to discuss the latest setback in the sale of the trash plant, Fussell said.
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment.