GNP mill's buyer: All options are open

Hackman Capital Partners, a California-based investment firm, will purchase the Great Northern Paper Co. mill in East Millinocket for $5.4 million after making the winning bid in an auction.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Hackman Capital Partners has only owned one mill before its successful bid at Tuesday’s GNP auction and it was scrapped. However, the firm said it liquidated its previous mill because the papermaking equipment had already been sold.

Sharon Kopman, who bid on behalf of the firm, told the newspaper that reopening the mill is possible. But, she said, “all of our options are open. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The sale of GNP’s East Millinocket mill was approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Bangor after Tuesday morning’s bidding process. Four other companies submitted bids, including GNP Acquisition, which submitted the initial bid of $2.6 million.

United Steelworkers Union spokesman Duane Lugdon expressed doubt that the mill would return to its papermaking days, saying “the successful bidder has no idea what they want to do with the assets with one exception — they know that they do not want to make paper.”

Hackman Capital Partners manages 270 facilities, measuring at a total of 25 million square feet and worth a total of $1 billion, according to the BDN. Last year, it bought 139 bakery facilities and equipment for $62.5 million during the process of Hostess Brands’ bankruptcy.

Before the mill’s previous owners filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy earlier this fall, the mill closed in January and laid off 256 workers the next month.

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