MADISON — The new owners of the shuttered Madison Paper Co. mill will hold a three-day online sale of more than 3,000 pieces of paper mill equipment next month.
The 550,000-square-foot facility closed last May after 35 years on the banks of the Kennebec River, leaving 214 mill workers without jobs.
New Mill Capital Holdings of New York City, in partnership with Perry Videx, of Hainesport, New Jersey, and Infinity Asset Solutions, of Toronto acquired the mill property in December.
The 3,000-item sale, to be held beginning at 10 a.m., June 13, 14 and 15, will feature items such as debarking equipment, log grinders, slashers, screens, vacuum pumps, stainless pumps, cleaners, valves, refiners, hammer mills, pulpers, roll grinders and compressors as well as a large quantity of maintenance equipment, plant support, spare parts and motor inventory, the company said Tuesday in a news release. The Valmet 7.2M paper machine, which was upgraded in 2012, is also for sale via private negotiation.
The auction is to be conducted exclusively on line at bidspotter.com, an industrial auction site.
“While the Valmet paper machine itself is being sold via private negotiation, the balance of the plant production and support equipment will be sold at the auction,” Eric Weiler, principal at New Mill Capital Holdings, said in the release. “There is a large volume of machinery available, ranging from specific paper production assets to general plant support equipment.”
Prospective buyers are invited to schedule an inspection of the equipment at any time by appointment or attend open inspections from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 8, 9 and 12 at the mill on Main Street in Madison.
Weiler said later Tuesday in an email that the pending sale is “tracking very well,” particularly from the number of buyers that have already registered to bid.
“With the sale three weeks away, I’m very happy with the interest so far,” he said. “In today’s auction environment, most buyers see the sale, plan to bid, but don’t register until much closer to the sale date. We’re also just getting into the heaviest advertising push.”
Everything is for sale, Jerome Epstein, 81, said during a visit to Madison in April. Epstein’s father, Perry Epstein, founded Perry Videx, a used equipment and machinery company in 1932. Perry Videx is one of the partners of Somerset Acquisition LLC, the group of new owners who purchased the mill in December.
Epstein said there are several companies interested in the equipment at the mill, including the paper machine itself, which under the agreement with the former owner, UPM and Northern SC Paper Corp., a subsidiary of The New York Times Co., could be used in place to make paper, so long as the product is not in direct competition with UPM.
“We are trying to sell the paper machine,” he said. “It’s not a dead certainty by any means — it’s a long shot because it’s a big machine — but it’s a beautiful machine. It’s in wonderful condition.”
Epstein said the best case would be to find someone to come in, buy the machine and operate it right there in Madison without having to spend money to take it apart, move it and reassemble it.
The final part of the sale of the mill properties also came in April, when the former owners announced an agreement on the sale of its hydropower facilities to Eagle Creek Renewable Energy LLC, a hydroelectric power producer based in Morristown, New Jersey.
Now, according to Epstein and Gregory Schain, a principal at New Mill Capital Holdings, the plan is to sell what they can and find tenants or buyers for the vacant buildings.
The real estate is currently available as well.
The mill produced supercalendered paper used for magazine publishing and has been in Madison since 1978. It was producing about 195,000 tons of paper annually at the time the closure was announced.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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