Local officials take wait-and-see approach to sale

News of the sale Thursday of MBNA Corp., which in the late 1990s was one of Maine’s top employers, left town officials in Belfast scratching their chins about what the deal will mean for their community, home to the credit card giant’s largest Maine facility.

Belfast Mayor Mike Hurley believes there is little officials can do in the wake of an announcement such as the sale of MBNA.

“You have to be proactive with other economic development stuff,” but those efforts are always under way, he said.

Belfast City Manager Terry St. Peter said Thursday little could be speculated about.

“I don’t know if it’s good news or bad news,” he said, but he believes the sale reflects well on MBNA.

“If the company were not a successful company, Bank of America would not be buying it.”

News of the sale will likely turbo-charge the rumor mill in the area where the company’s exodus from the state has been forecast for the past two years.

The rumors grew in momentum when MBNA closed offices in Camden and Rockland, then flared again earlier in June when it announced the sale of such high-profile properties as the Knox Mill in Camden, the waterfront office in Rockland and the Point Lookout retreat center in Northport.

Sources at MBNA have said that its Maine operations have been among the company’s top-performing offices. That may bode well for the future of employment in Maine, as well as the fact that MBNA is significantly leaner than it was even just five years ago.

At the same time, it seems clear that MBNA’s glory days in Maine, when it remade the complexion of the midcoast with thousands of jobs, new offices and multimillion-dollar philanthropy, are over.

“Long-term, this is going to be the best” for MBNA employees, MBNA chief Bruce Hammonds said Thursday.