BUCKSPORT, Maine — The evolution of the former Verso Paper mill into something other than a paper manufacturing facility continued Tuesday as several hundred pieces of equipment remaining at the mill were auctioned off.
The auction, which is being conducted by auction firm Biditup, is expected to last for two days, ending Wednesday evening. Items that are auctioned off are not expected to be removed until later this week and must be removed by April 8, Biditup officials told attendees.
Montreal-based American Iron and Metal, a scrap metal firm that in January bought the 250-acre waterfront mill site from Verso, is pursuing plans to demolish the former mill but intends to keep the two power generation facilities on the property.
Jeff McGlin, AIM’s U.S. vice president for development, has said that AIM hopes to submit a demolition permit application to the town by the end of this month. From there, the company hopes to have a demolition contractor start work about the end of April or early May and to have the job completed by late summer of 2016.
AIM officials have not indicated what they will do with the site once the mill is demolished but have suggested they likely will try to redevelop it, as they are doing with a former Verso mill in Sartell, Minnesota.
Dave Milan, the town’s economic development director, said Tuesday that despite prior statements made by company officials, AIM has told Bucksport officials that it has decided it does not want to use the site as a possible permanent recycling facility.
“We have their assurance they are not interested in creating a salvage yard [at the site]” Milan said.
Milan added that, with the auction, the town’s economic development goals for the property have shifted away fully from trying to find another paper manufacturer to move in. The cost of replacing all the equipment going out the door, he said, would be too great for anyone to resume papermaking at the property. Instead, the town is focused on maximizing the site’s redevelopment possibilities.
“We are working with AIM to see how we can influence how [the property] gets reused,” Milan said.
The bidding on Tuesday attracted more than 100 attendees, with more bidders participating online. Items auctioned off Tuesday morning were mainly smaller pieces of equipment commonly found in machine workshops such as wrenches, clamps, hoists, storage cabinets and more. Winning bids for some of the items auctioned off ranged from $25 to $12,500.
Larger items such as pickup trucks, backhoes and forklifts are among items listed for bidding on Wednesday. Overall, nearly 3,000 different items are expected to be auctioned off by Wednesday evening.
With a classic auctioneer’s cadence, staff with Biditup put up items to bid, shouting out in recognition as each bidder held up his card with his number printed in bold type at the top. As each item was put up for bid, a photograph of that item was projected onto a screen in front of bidders seated at rows of tables in a dimly lit room in a brick administrative building at the former mill.
Jeff Nelson, a partner in Brewer-based Lane Conveyors & Drives and one of the registered bidders at Tuesday’s auction, said he was hoping to acquire a 24-foot lathe.
He did not know how much it would cost to buy one new, but said, “I looked online to find out and found used ones that cost $20,000.”
Nelson said his company used to do work for Verso and its predecessors and is sorry to have lost the business. He said Lane expanded to New Hampshire a few years ago because of the decline of Maine’s paper industry.
“They started tightening their belt and did more in-house,” Nelson said of Verso. “Paper is going away.”
