Hampden waste-to-energy plant sold for $1.5M to towns' representative
Courtesy / Coastal Resources of Maine
The waste-to-energy plant in Hampden has been sold to the Municipal Review Committee, a nonprofit representing the member communities who planned to utilize the plant.
The troubled Hampden trash incineration facility has been sold to the organization that represents the 115 communities that had planned to send their trash and recycling to the site.
The sale of the facility’s assets was approved in early August by a judge for $1.5 million, according to Michael Carroll, the executive director of the Municipal Review Committee, a nonprofit corporation that provides waste disposal for the member communities.
Until the sale was finalized, the MRC had owned the land occupied by the Hampden plant but not the actual incineration infrastructure and related assets.
The facility was constructed for $80 million and opened in 2019. But the plant was soon beset with operational and financial issues that led it to be mothballed.
Despite several offers over the years to the majority owners, a suitable buyer was never lined up, Carroll told Mainebiz on Tuesday.
“They found what they thought was an appropriate buyer and worked with that buyer for almost a year, but they just kept dragging out a closing because they couldn't complete their financing,” he said. “But that particular buyer, if they didn't close by a certain date, they were supposed to be taking care of some of the expenses at the facility to keep it preserved and … dormant, and they were not doing so.”
So instead, the MRC had to pay to keep up the facility. Carroll said the related costs are compartmentalized into “a lot of different buckets" and noted that the MRC covered unpaid taxes of over $200,000. The MRC did not handle the former owner’s unpaid gas bill.
“We've just recently negotiated a lot of the liens that were on the building so that we could purchase it,” he said. He later added, “That's the whole goal of looking for a partnership and working towards a partnership, so we can recoup that money.”
Carroll hopes to have the facility back in service within six or nine months after the MRC is able to either “finalize a partnership or finalize financing to go at it on our own.”
“Our preference would be to [secure a partnership], but we're not going to just sit back, [so] in case that doesn't come to fruition, we're going to make sure that we have a backup plan.”
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