Camp owners to buy leased lots as group

BRIDGEWATER — Most of the camp owners at Number Nine Lake in northern Maine have agreed to a group purchase of their leased lots.

They have agreed to pay $12,656.25 each for the lots, which Hopkins Hills Realty Trust of Bangor is selling, according to a camp owners’ spokesman.

Frank Kearney of Mars Hill said Wednesday that 20 of the 24 camp owners had agreed to purchase their lots in 2- to 10-acre parcels on the lake near Bridgewater.

Richard Trott, an owner and trustee of Hopkins Hills, said Wednesday the purchase and sale agreement for a total of $222,156.25 was written for 18 owners who decided to buy lots and that an amendment could be made to include others.

One of the four remaining camp owners moved his camp from the lakeside property last week; the other three plan to sell theirs through Hopkins Hills, according to Kearney.

For the last few weeks Hopkins Hills and several of the camp owners have been embroiled in a dispute as to who owned the camps, after the sale to Hopkins Hills by Diamond Occidental Forest Inc. last spring of about 120 acres around the lake.

Representatives for Hopkins Hills said they believed they had purchased the camps along with the lots and offered them for sale back to campers. Those claims were hotly disputed by camp owners, some of whom had been leasing the lots from various owners for more than 30 years. They also said they were unable to pay Hopkins Hills’ “inflated” asking prices.

A spokesman for Diamond said last week he had “no idea” why Hopkins thought the camps were included in the sale of lots.

Trott said Wednesday he had been involved in discussions with camp owners regarding a group purchase. He said the $303,000 his company had invested in the property, including interest and legal fees, was divided among the 24 lots to reach the price of $12,656.25 each. One camp owner will pay $7,000 for a lot with the largest frontage, but that lot is wet, shallow and accessible only by foot, he said.

“We are paying his (Trott’s) cost in the project,” Kearney said. “He explained his complete cost in the project to me and that’s what we agreed on … and I convinced him that he will get his money back quicker this way. They will make a little profit when they sell the remaining camps and lots.”

Emmett Porter, one of the camp owners, said Thursday the deal with Hopkins Hills was “mutually agreed to by all parties concerned. It’s coming out to be (in) the best interest of all concerned.”

Campers will sign the purchase and sale agreement secured by a note and pay Hopkins Hills by Sept. 1, Trott said. The parcel would be purchased as one lot and the campers would have the responsibility for dividing it, he said.

Kearney said the Land Use Regulation Commission had approved a subdivision around the lake.