Cate Street: Lien 'interferes with' mill revitalization
Cate Street Capital, the New Hampshire-based investment firm that owns paper mills in the Millinocket area, said the lien filed by the town of Millinocket seeking $2.24 million in delinquent property taxes “interferes with” its revitalization efforts.
However, the investment firm said that won't stop its efforts to restart its East Millinocket paper mill and open a $140 million wood pellet mill in Millinocket, the Bangor Daily News reported. The town of Millinocket filed the lien this week as it grapples with a major tax revenue loss from the planned auction of the last paper machine in town.
“While Cate Street will continue to persevere in our efforts to revitalize the region, the town of Millinocket’s actions against GNP West continue to make these efforts more difficult,” Cate Street spokeswoman Alexandra Ritchie said in a statement obtained by the newspaper.
Millinocket Town Manager Peggy Daigle said in a statement the town decided to file the $2.24 million lien due to “conflicting information [from Cate Street’s leaders] that has caused concern from the Town Council,” according to the BDN. The town has been helping Cate Street redevelop for the former paper mill into the wood pellet mill.
Daigle said fairness was another reason for the lien, saying that “the Town Council recognizes that taxes paid by the residents, businesses and industries is the price one pays to live in an organized and civil society,” according to the newspaper.
Ritchie and an attorney that helped the town file the lien said it won't prevent the auction of the town's last paper machine. Cate Street has said the No. 11 paper machine, owned by Great Northern Paper Co., is being sold after it failed to find a strategic partner to restart the Millinocket mill.
Cate Street is looking to plug a $9 million financing gap to start the wood pellet mill after it received a $16 million bond from the Finance Authority of Maine in April. The firm also plans to build wood pellet mills in Eastport and an undisclosed Maine site.
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