The South Portland-based food-business incubator and commercial kitchen is seeking to reorganize its debt months after selling its 42,000-square-foot base to a group of local investors.
A day after Fork Food Lab filed for federal bankruptcy relief, the South Portland-based food-business incubator and commercial kitchen was granted an order to meet payroll this week.
The nonprofit, which recently sold its 42,000-square-foot hub at 95-97 Darling Ave. to a local investor group on the eve of a pending foreclosure, filed for Chapter 11 voluntary bankruptcy protection in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine on Tuesday.
"This case has hit the docket quickly due to some cash-flow issues,” Bernstein Shur shareholder Adam Prescott, representing Fork Food Lab, said in Wednesday’s hearing. He also referred to an "unsustainable amount of debt" saddling the organization.
He said that Fork currently has six to seven full-time employees and one part-timer on staff, and was seeking an order to meet payroll this Friday. Following a 50-minute hearing in the second-floor downtown Portland courtroom, Judge Peter G. Gary granted the order from the bench.
Move and real estate sale
After outgrowing its former home in Portland, Fork Food Lab bought a South Portland office building formerly occupied by WEX Inc. for $5.9 million in
2023. The purchase was funded in part by a $3.6 million loan backed by the
Finance Authority of Maine.
On the eve of a pending foreclosure auction earlier this year, three investors — Justin Afond, the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation and John Wasileski — formed Darling Fork LLC to
buy the property and keep the operation going.
At that time, interim Executive Director Corinne Tompkins said the change in building ownership would allow Fork Food Lab members “to focus on their craft rather than the fear of losing this workspace.”
Still saddled with debt, Fork Food Lab is seeking bankruptcy protection to return to sustainability while ensuring business as usual for members, Tompkins said in a Tuesday news release issued on the day of the filing.
Tompkins succeeded Bill Seretta, who was honored as a Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year in
2024 for leading Fork Food Lab’s expansion.
Assets and liabilities
The 91-page bankruptcy filing lists $3,682,081.65 in total assets and $2,677,509.41 current liabilities, including more than $25,000 in accrued payroll.
Unsecured creditors include Asa Gorman Builders of South Portland, with a claim of $668,809.14; the U.S. Small Business Administration, with $496,883 in loan repayments; and Norway Savings Bank, with loan repayments of $354,843.
Fork Food Lab has 10 days from the bankruptcy filing to file a reorganization plan.
In Wednesday’s court hearing, Prescott noted that while Fork Food Lab itself is not a huge operation, it has a broader economic impact on the region with around 80 to 90 member businesses, though the number fluctuates seasonally.
He also assured the judge that the reorganization plan will be “thoroughly vetted” and that he’s “very confident that what we’re going to propose” will be the best way forward for all parties involved.
