Thursday, January 28, 2016 12:30 pm

OLD TOWN, Maine (From the Bangor Daily News) -- The same company marketing machinery at the shuttered Lincoln paper mill purchased the Old Town mill from Expera on Wednesday. The company says it's had interest in a wide range of uses for the pulp mill.

The Old Town mill was purchased by MFGR LLC, a consortium of liquidators that includes the Boston-based Gordon Brothers Group, PPL Group LLC of Illinois, Rabin Worldwide of California and Capital Recovery Group LLC of Connecticut. The company did not disclose terms of the sale.

While MFGR had the mill under contract for the purchase that closed Wednesday, Bill Firestone, president of Capital Recovery Group, said in a news release that it has already had nibbles on the property and equipment.

"We have had numerous inquiries since the former Expera plant has been under contract with our group, including aquaculturists, transportation hubs, pulp manufacturing and developers," Firestone said.

The company is simultaneously marketing assets of the former Lincoln Paper and Tissue Co., which Firestone suggested could be paired with some of the assets at the Old Town mill. The Old Town facility has pulp making and biofuel research equipment used by the University of Maine, 400,000 square feet of warehouse space, a wastewater treatment plant and a 4,000-foot frontage on the Penobscot River.

"We see a large potential to make unproductive assets productive," Firestone said.

Expera Specialty Solutions of Kaukauna, Wisconsin, acquired the assets of the former Old Town Fuel and Fiber pulp mill for $10.5 million on Dec. 5, 2014, out of a bankruptcy auction.

Expera announced in late September that it would close the facility at the end of 2015. About 195 people worked at the mill, which provided pulp for four Expera mills in Wisconsin.

Addie Teeters, spokeswoman for Expera, said at the time the closure was due to the declining value of the Canadian dollar, excess pulp supply in the marketplace and relatively expensive wood in Maine.

Old Town City Manager Bill Mayo said in an email Wednesday evening that the mill's fiscal year 2015-16 taxes have not been paid. Prior taxes for the 40-acre riverfront property amounted to around $1 million annually.