Brewer ice arena back on the auction block

BREWER – A 5-year-old ice arena on Acme Road is back on the auction block, a month after its owners’ request for assistance from the city was granted.

The sale is scheduled for 10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 6, at the Brewer rink, which also houses indoor soccer programs for part of the year.

To be eligible, bidders must have deposits of $50,000 cash or certified check, according to a listing prepared by Keenan Auction Co. of Portland. The winning bidder must be ready to increase the deposit to 10 percent of the sale price on auction day and pay the balance of the purchase price within 45 days.

According to a legal notice published in late June, the T.J. Ryan Center, formerly known as the H.O. Bouchard Sports Complex, originally was to be auctioned off on July 30 as the result of a judgment of foreclosure and order of sale issued in Maine District Court in Bangor.

Mortgage holder Bangor Savings Bank, however, agreed to postpone the sale in order to give rink owners Louis and Caryle Janicki of Hampden an opportunity to work out a refinancing arrangement with a new lender, Advantage Commercial Funding, a Maine limited liability corporation based on Portland.

That deal has fallen through, according to the Janickis’ attorney, James Wholly of the Bangor firm Rudman & Winchell. The potential lender, he said Wednesday, “just got cold feet” at the last minute.

The sale, however, doesn’t necessarily spell the end of a place to skate for area hockey enthusiasts who depended on it.

Brewer Economic Development Director Drew Sachs said this week that while the city is not interested in taking the facility over, he confirmed that the city has been approached by at least two prospective buyers who indicated a desire to continue operating it as a hockey arena.

Attempts to reach the Janickis were unsuccessful Wednesday.

Wholly said that the Janickis are continuing to operate the rink and sports camps there this summer. In the meantime, Louis Janicki has been working with an undisclosed local individual who has expressed interest in taking over the mortgage, Wholly said. He said it is “quite possible” that the financial troubles could be resolved before the auction deadline.

Wholly said that Bangor Savings has gone to great lengths to keep the rink afloat.

“The bank, despite the fact that they’re foreclosing, has really bent over backwards to assist Mr. Janicki and stretch the loan out,” Wholly said.

Jack DeCamp, Bangor Savings senior vice president for commercial loans, said Wednesday that the bank’s motivation from the beginning was to support a project of great community value, particularly for youth. He confirmed that the bank held off on the sale in the hope that the refinancing package would come through.

“The last thing we want to do is see it closed,” DeCamp said. “I’d like to see some private individual or group come forward and continue to use it as an ice arena. That’s our hope.” To that end, he said, the bank asked Keenan Auction to send out a targeted mass mailing to youth hockey associations and others who might be in a position to take the rink on.

Because of the scarcity of ice time in the area, the closure of the Brewer arena would spell “chaos” for the area ice hockey community, said Frank Comeau, parks and recreation director for the adjacent city of Bangor. Bangor operates one of only two other hockey arenas in the region. The other is the Alfond Arena, which belongs to the University of Maine and is shared by its hockey and basketball programs.

Though Comeau said that the Bangor rink could accommodate some of the skaters now using the T.J. Ryan Center, the only available ice time would come at “odd times,” namely early mornings and late nights. Those hours, he noted, would hardly be ideal for youth hockey leagues and high school teams.

The next closest rinks, he said, are in the Winslow-Waterville area to the south and Houlton to the north.