Saunders Brothers mill to go to auction

GREENWOOD — A wood-products manufacturing mill is scheduled to go to a foreclosure auction on March 29, according to documents in the Oxford County Registry of Deeds.

The auction will be held at 11 a.m. on site at the Saunders Brothers Mill at 256 Main St. The company manufactures custom wood products, with a focus on dowels, according to its Web site.

A legal notice about the auction states that SB Acquisitions LLC, a Maine company with a mailing address of Exeter Advisors in Boston, breached the conditions of a mortgage it entered into with Bank of America in November of 2007. In that mortgage, SB Acquisitions had a revolving credit promissory note with a maximum principal of $1.7 million and a term note in the original principal of $800,000.

The agreement put numerous responsibilities on SB Acquisitions, including the necessity to make regular payments to the bank, keep the property insured and pay utilities. It also allowed for the mortgage to be voided if SB Acquisitions paid $2.4 million with interest, premiums and any other applicable costs.

The auction will attempt to sell “all intangible personal property” except cash described in a financing statement to the Maine Secretary of State. Any prospective buyers must deposit $25,000 with attorney David S. Sherman Jr. to be eligible to bid, and the deposit will be refunded to losing bidders. The winning buyer will be required to pay 10 percent of their bid within five days of the auction, and purchase the property within 30 days.

Documents at the Registry of Deeds show that Sebago Technics, an engineering and architecture firm in Westbrook, claimed a $16,555.12 lien against the property in January of 2008 for services performed. Delta Roofing of Maine, a Portland company, claimed two liens totaling $111,664 in April of 2009 and January for services performed.

According to The Bethel Citizen, the mill was formerly owned by Gilbert Wood Products of Westbrook, which retained formal ownership of the property until the SB Acquisitions' purchase in 2007. The mill, which is valued by the town at $1,364,030, owes $19,778 as a portion of last year's taxes, and is estimated to employ 40 to 50 people.

Blaine Mills, vice president of the Greenwood Historical Society, said the Saunders Brothers mill began operation at the site in 1999. He said the location has hosted a mill since Samuel Locke, the namesake for the Locke Mills village, first established one.

“There's been a lot of them that have been burned, but there's been a mill there since 1819,” Mills said.

Attempts to reach the Saunders Brothers mill were unsuccessful on Thursday.

mlangeveld@sunjournal.com