Bay Colony acres for sale

CUSHING – About 450 wooded acres along the Meduncook River that once held a promise for development of homes worth $300,000 to $900,000 are going up for public sale.

The Meduncook Bay Colony, proposed in 2004 by Glenburn developer Jim Tower, 62, was planned to be three communities on multiacre lots with pier access, common areas and community associations.

Now, mortgage holder Machias Savings Bank is exercising its power of sale in certain mortgage deeds given to the bank by Cushing Holdings LLC, Last Resort Holdings LLC, Out-to-See LLC and Sisters Wilderness Trust, companies created to market the land in the development.

The auction is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, at the intersection of Pleasant Point and Gaunt Neck Roads in Cushing, for multiple parcels in Cushing and Owls Head.

The Meduncook Bay Colony sparked controversy from the beginning, according to Bangor Daily News reports. Some neighbors believed the development might cause irreversible destruction to the health of the river and to the lobster and shellfish industries. The development’s proposed four wharves also were a concern.

Bangor attorney Michael Haenn, who represents the bank, said the property is to be sold in its entirety. Each bidder will have to put up a $1 million deposit before registering for the auction.

Machias Savings Bank officials said they could not comment on the matter.

Nathan Dane, attorney for Tower and the Cushing holdings, as they are now called, said he was not authorized to disclose how much money is involved.

“Anyone interested in buying the property would have to do an awful lot of homework from the foreclosure notice,” Dane said.

People who have bought houses already on the property are protected, Dane said. “Individual homeowners are not affected by the sale in any way,” he said.

Tower would not discuss the matter on the telephone Wednesday.

Cushing Code Enforcement Officer Scott Bickford said the 450-acre colony was to be a low-density, single-family residential community that would have become part of Cushing, 10 miles southwest of Rockland, with its own community school.

Tower’s “colony” encompassed three subdivisions, with 53 lots on which two houses existed at the time of the original sale. Four more houses were built, and three are under construction.

Also, a proposed 13-lot subdivision known as Robbins Mountain, which Bickford said has never been approved, will be included in the sale, according to the bank’s legal notice.

Bickford said a lot of grooming of the land took place and infrastructure work had been done since the beginning that doesn’t show and an abatement request for assessment hasn’t been resolved.

Bickford said he couldn’t determine the value of the property because of the construction that’s been done and infrastructure added, such as roads.

The Cushing holdings include an 80-acre lot and an 85-acre lot in Owls Head. According to the Owls Head town office, the property has not been subdivided.

Bickford, who also is code enforcement officer for Owls Head, said Tower had proposed a 59-lot plan, but never got it past the preliminary stage.

Tower reportedly estimated that his three communities would have added between $40 million and $50 million to Cushing’s assessed valuation once all the homes were built. The homes would have brought in $500,000 a year in new tax revenue.

Tower, who owns Engineering Dynamics Inc. of Bangor, reportedly paid $6.5 million for the two-tract property in 2004.

Bickford said the 13-lot Hornbarn Hill subdivision is on the smaller, 130-acre tract, while Meduncook Plantation in the Colony is on the larger 260-acre tract, which includes Gaunt Neck and Meduncook Point subdivisions.

Some acreage Tower retained for future use, he added.

Bickford said there was nothing wrong with Tower’s proposal.

“It was just the economy,” he said.

Haenn said details about the property are at www.haennlaw.com. Bid packages are available on the day of the public sale.

gchappell@bangordailynews.net

236-4598