PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Taxpayers won’t be on the hook for funds owed by the Northern Maine Finance Commission on a vacant property, following a recent court decision that allows the city to secure income NMFC receives from a rental agreement with another business elsewhere in Aroostook County.
“NMFC, an LLC affiliated with the Northern Maine Development Commission, had invested in property in Presque Isle — the former MBNA building on Green Hill Drive. Presque Isle participated to the tune of $400,000. The former tenant (BalanceBPO) moved out. NMFC had no income coming in and thus weren’t paying us,” City Manager Jim Bennett told councilors at Monday night’s meeting.
At the request of councilors, Bennett said the city sought legal counsel to determine what options, if any, were available to recoup the money owed.
“We hired Jeremy Fischer, an attorney in southern Maine. He found an unsecured note coming into NMFC, which they were using to pay a note with the USDA,” he said. “Jeremy was able to take this to court and secured our position, which now provides us with an income stream of about $300,000 — which covers the $200,000 or so owed us plus expenses.”
Prior to receiving this court judgment, Bennett said the plan had been to seek compensation through NMFC property in Fort Kent.
“Jeremy’s recommendation is to waive our second on the property in Fort Kent, because now we have a note payable to us in excess of the value of the note owed the city,” said Bennett. “The only risk we have is through the holder of the original note — Gagnon Rentals — who’d have to somehow default or go through bankruptcy. There’s no indication of that.”
Bennett said the city is in “much better shape than we were when we started this journey six months ago.”
“Several on Council wanted to take this issue on; I personally didn’t want to because I didn’t believe there was anything there to benefit the city. I was wrong and the Council was right,” said Bennett.
With that, councilors voted unanimously to authorize the city manager to sign the discharge for the mortgage on the Fort Kent property, as presented.
