BREWER – Officials learned Friday there is a good chance the city may obtain the abandoned Eastern Fine Paper Co. property as part of the sale of its parent company – bankrupt Eastern Pulp and Paper Corp. of Amherst, Mass.

Despite the presence of hazardous materials on the site, the city sees the potential free acquisition of the 43-acre property and its buildings along the Penobscot River as an economic development opportunity.

“We can look at this as a problem or look at it as an opportunity,” said economic development director Drew Sachs on Friday. “And simply put: We’re taking the latter [view].”

The $23.72 million sale of Eastern Pulp to First Paper Holding Corp. LLC, based in Connecticut, was approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge James B. Haines Friday afternoon in Portland.

In Portland, Keith Van Scotter, a First Paper partner, acknowledged that giving Eastern Fine to Brewer is a possibility. But, he added, he still wants to evaluate the situation before making a final decision on whether to start up the facility at a later date, seek a buyer for it or give it to Brewer.

“I don’t know how that’s going to play out,” said Van Scotter. “The future of Brewer is a little less clear [for us] because of its cost structure.”

As part of Friday’s sale, First Paper stands to get Eastern’s Amherst, Mass., property and Lincoln Pulp and Paper Co., in two weeks.

The second part of the deal basically turns the Brewer mill over to the city within the next eight weeks, if all of the agreement’s conditions are met, the city obtains some protection from environmental issues at the site and Brewer City Council gives its approval.

Thousands of gallons of hazardous material are stored at the Brewer mill, including mercury and other processed chemicals. Cleanup costs could be substantial.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state’s Department of Environmental Protection are working with the city to clean up the site and “secure some guarantees to protect [the city] from some of the liabilities of this property,” Sachs said.

Brewer’s attorney, Curtis Kimball of Bangor, said agreements with the environmental agencies involved should be wrapped up in two weeks.

The agreement comes with an understanding that Corsair Special Situations Fund LP of New York City, which lent Eastern Pulp about $3 million and has primary rights to the equipment, could sell off Brewer’s machinery in exchange for its debts and could take up to a year to do so.

Sachs said the city started to actively pursue the idea of acquiring the property about two weeks ago, when news that First Paper was not likely to reopen the Brewer mill was announced.

He said that until two weeks ago, the city had been actively trying to find a buyer that would come in, reopen the facility and put the city’s displaced workers back to work.

“We decided if it’s not going to reopen, we want it,” Mayor Michael Celli said. “I think it’s going to be easy for us to find something to develop on that land. It’s something the citizens of Brewer should look forward to. This is going to totally change how South Brewer is viewed by others and how it views itself.”

The property could be developed in a wide variety of ways, said Sachs, who added, “It’s going to take work and vision and a little time.”

The Brewer and Lincoln mills have been empty since Jan. 16, when they were closed and 750 workers were laid off. DEP has maintained both properties since March 12.

A big part of the deal is that the city will get the property lien-free.

“We want to make sure, before we were to accept that property, that it would be lien-free,” Celli said. “We wouldn’t want previous creditors to come back and look for proceeds if we sell it.”

Jim Dinardo, a nine-year veteran Eastern Fine millworker who now works as a peer support counselor for the mill’s crew, said he’s disappointed the Brewer mill will not reopen.

“Neither myself or anyone else involved is happy with how things have turned out,” he said. “We’d still like to see somebody step forward and purchase the mill.”

NEWS writer Deborah Turcotte contributed to this report.