BANGOR DAILY NEWS • February 12, 2021
Maine’s highest court heard oral arguments in a dispute over the actual taxable value of the Old Town mill Thursday morning. The long-standing dispute between the mill’s former owner, Expera Speciality Solutions, and the city of Old Town landed in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court after a series of appeals over the state Board of Property Review’s granting of a tax abatement to the company. “The question here is whether the bankruptcy sale in December 2014 represented the fair market value of the mill,” Maine Supreme Court Associate Justice Ellen Gorman said. Expera bought the formerly defunct mill for $10.5 million in bankruptcy proceedings, with plans to restart production. But by September 2015, the facility was shut down again. It later sold for just $2.5 million. Old Town determined the facility’s value to be about $30 million in 2015.