The building, land and equipment will be up for bids.
By Eileen M. Adams
Staff Writer

RUMFORD – A former woodworking mill will be on the auction block next month, ending yet another chapter in the 40-year-old history of the building.

The 75,000-square-foot set of buildings has been used as a woodworking plant by the Thurston family and by Saunders Brothers. The remaining employees of Saunders Brothers were moved to the company’s Locke Mills plant about a year ago, leaving the building virtually empty.

The current owner of the building, according to a legal notice, is Hardwood Management.

The auction of the building and approximately 16 acres of land, including 800 feet of frontage along Route 2 west of the town, will be held at the site at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 21, by Tranzon Auction Properties Ltd. of Portland.

Tom Saturley, owner of the Portland firm, said along with the buildings and land, a variety of woodworking equipment such as lathes, grinders and shop tools will go on the block.

When Saunders bought out Thurston’s a couple of years ago, most of the wood turning equipment was moved to the Locke Mills plant, along with most of the Rumford plant’s 50 employees.

Prior to the building’s use as a woodworking plant, it had served as home to the now defunct retailer, Mammoth Mart, and as a factory branch of G.H. Bass and Co., a well-known shoe manufacturer that has since moved all of its production facilities overseas.

Saturley said he has a significant data bank of prospective buyers with an interest in this type of property, along with a list of potential investors who have shown interest in the plant in the past. He plans to follow up with these investors.

The auction will be advertised in a variety of media and trade magazines.

Those bidding on the buildings and land must be able to deliver a certified check for $25,000.

He said the property could become a manufacturing facility or retail complex again.

eadams@sunjournal.com

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