Eastern Fine mill creditors mostly out of Brewer building

BREWER – Creditors of the defunct Eastern Fine Paper Co. mill are now out of the massive building, and everything that is left behind, except for one paper machine, is property of the city.

“As of midnight last night, Lincoln is done – they have no more rights to the mill,” Drew Sachs, Brewer economic development director, said Monday. “Now we have the signed bill of sale transferring everything in that mill to us.

“Basically everything on site and within that mill is ours, except for the No. 2 paper machine,” he said. “There is no questions anymore about assets.”

Brewer and Minnesota-based developer Michael Stern now can begin work transforming the former industrial site into The Mill at Penobscot Landing, a multiuse retail and residential center.

Brewer was given the Eastern Fine site as part of the sale of its parent company, Eastern Pulp and Paper Corp., to Connecticut-based First Paper Holding LLC in May 2004. As part of the deal, the Connecticut company got Lincoln Pulp and Paper Co., now named Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co.

As part of Eastern Corp.’s bankruptcy agreement, Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co. and other creditors were given one year to remove any equipment or supplies they wanted from Brewer’s South Main Street mill, Sachs said.

Lincoln Paper, which already had a four-month extension, then bought out the remaining creditors to become the lone creditor and was given until Sunday, July 31, to remove the remaining equipment.

Lincoln Paper may be out of the building, but Brewer is giving Northwest Pulp & Paper Equipment Co. of Amboy, Wash. an extension until Labor Day to remove the No. 2 paper machine, which was sold to them by Lincoln Paper.

“They have to be out by Sept. 5,” Sachs said of Northwest Pulp. “We have a developer now who wants to get moving.”

Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield was hired by Northwest Pulp to remove the No. 2 paper machine.

Since Sunday was the cutoff date to get the equipment out of the building, “[Lincoln Paper] basically came in and ripped out everything they could rip out and left a lot of debris and garbage and even left a couple open spots in the building,” Sachs said.

The creditor was allowed to take machinery, equipment, spare parts, supplies, some electrical equipment and certain other items, such as the motorized loading docks, which left two 2.5-foot by 8-foot holes in a back wall, Sachs said.

The No. 3 machine, which dates back to the early 1900s, will be sold as scrap metal and, along with other scrap in the building, is expected to generate more than $65,000.

Funds raised from the sale of the scrap metal will be used by the city to redevelop the site into The Mill with Stern.

It was announced Friday that Brewer also would see $3.55 million in funds as part of the federal highway transportation spending bill.

Half of the federal funds awarded, $1.75 million, is earmarked to improve access to the site along Route 15 and the remaining $1.8 million is for “transportation improvements for The Mill project as well as riverfront redevelopment,” Sachs said.

These riverfront improvements could include a marina, a bike and walking trail along the Penobscot River or, perhaps, riverside stabilization, the economic development director said.

“This is the first major contribution from the federal government to The Mill project,” Sachs said.