Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — A slumping economy that led to the closing earlier this year of Slopes: Northern Maine Restaurant & Brewing Company, formerly owned by Dr. Hank Ford and Dr. Imbesat Daudi, found bargain hunters from as far away as Texas and California hoping to pick up a deal at last week’s auction at the Maysville St. restaurant. The auction was held to help satisfy some of the company’s debt with lien holders, including: Machias Savings Bank, Northern Maine Development Commission, Presque Isle Development Fund, among others. City officials joined a variety of business leaders and auction participants at the site May 7 as everything from the building and property to cookware and deer antler chandeliers were placed up for bid. Vehicles of all kinds packed the parking lot, including Amish buggies, while inside men and women from various backgrounds checked out the many items up for bid.
“This is a difficult time economically. It’s sad to see any business close. We can only hope that something good will come of this in the future,” said Ken Arndt, city’s planning and development director.
Arndt said by the looks of the crowd attending the auction, a number of other businesses were acquiring various items, indicating others were looking for ways to cut costs by shopping for bargains.
“This is a good opportunity for others to pick up deals and save money from what items would cost if they bought them brand new,” said Arndt, noting that the goods being auctioned were in good shape.
City Manager Tom Stevens was also on hand for the event and speculated on what the property might be used for in the future.
“It could be used for retail space. It’s large enough to sub-divide for more than one business to use,” said Stevens.
Keenan Auction Company, of Portland, was hired to handle the event. No stranger to Aroostook County, having run an auction company and business on Dyer St. for a number of years, the firm is now operated by the next generation of Keenans, Steve and Stef.
“I handle equipment auctions, my brother, Stef, handles real estate,” said Steve Keenan, who spent the better part of Thursday serving as auctioneer, with bidders beginning the day looking at kitchenware and progressing through the restaurant as each item was auctioned off.
Keenan said the Slopes auction was the largest of its kind in the company’s history.
“This was the largest restaurant equipment sale in our history, taking in about $225,000. Our largest sale prior to that was in 2004 at Miller’s in Bangor,” said Keenan, adding, “We conduct around 25 restaurant auctions every year.”
Keenan said the bottling equipment got seven sealed bids but the name of the winning bidder is not being released at this point.
“We’re waiting to confirm the high bid,” said Keenan in a phone interview Friday.
Last week’s auction saw bidders from near and far.
“We had restaurant equipment buyers from almost all the New England states and Canada, with the majority from Maine. Some came from as far away as Connecticut,” he said.
Online bids were also being accepted.
“We had 60 bidders online that were bidding, including folks from California, Pennsylvania, Texas — really all over. The online bidding was successful on some items. They were active in a lot of bidding,” said Keenan.
A southern Maine bidder acquired the brewing equipment.
“Joe Cimino, of Cimino Enterprises, of southern Maine, won the bid on the brewing equipment. He’s been in the beverage industry for many years,” said Keenan.
Keenan said the Internet has made a big difference in his business, allowing more people from greater distances to take part in auctions.
He was impressed with the size of the crowd that showed up for the auction.
“It’s nice to see how quickly the equipment was picked up. We had a great turnout,” said Keenan.
The property was auctioned in two separate parcels. The 23,000 square foot building and 4.9 acres of land it’s on went in one lot, while an adjacent property, measuring in at 9.61 acres and described as “development land” for auction purposes, sold separately.
“Machias Savings Bank retained the restaurant and property, while a Caribou-based company acquired the adjacent piece of land,” said Arndt.
No figure was available at presstime for what either property sold for at the auction.
CSS Development was named as the winning bidder for the vacant parcel of land. Officials with the company said they have no immediate plans for the property.
“We have nothing planned at present. We picked it out as an investment,” said Sam Collins, co-owner of CSS, noting the parcel is in a good location for future development.
