Camden convenes special March 23 select board meeting for tannery deal
March 23, 2011
The Camden Select Board has scheduled a 7:30 a.m. meeting for Wednesday, March 23, to amend a sales agreement and consider referendum language for an upcoming town vote on the sale of former Apollo Tannery land. The meeting will take place in the Washington Street Conference Room.
Notice of the meeting was distributed Tuesday afternoon, March 22, and included three agenda items:
1) Consideration of first amendment to the agreement for the purchase and sale of the Apollo Tannery property.
2) Approval of the order for a referendum vote on the ratification of the agreement.
3) Approval of the warrant article language for the referendum vote.
The special meeting will include scheduling when Camden citizens will vote on whether to approve a purchase and sales agreement with B'D' Turman'D Entertainment LLC of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The real estate transaction concerns 3.5 acres on Washington Street that was once home to Apollo Tannery.
A public hearing on the proposal has been scheduled for April 7, and a ballot vote is expected to be scheduled sometime around May 9. The proposed purchase and sales agreement is available for review at the town office and will be posted online following signatures of the principals. The proposed closing date is June 15.
At Wednesday's morning meeting, the Select Board will consider amending the purchase and sales agreement to allow for more time extensions, according to Select Board discretion.
Conditions for the real estate closing entail the buyers to secure final site plan approval from the Camden Planning Board, as well as all permits, licenses and permission from federal and state agencies, 90 days from the purchase and sales agreement's effective date. The agreement allows up to 60 days to obtain all the permits and approvals with an extension agreement.
The amendment proposed for board's Wednesday consideration would allow the board to extend the agreement even more if the buyers "have shown progress and if permitting and financing are delayed," said Roberta Smith, Camden Town Manager, on March 22. The extension could be made "as long as the buyers have made good faith efforts," she said.
At Wednesday's meeting, the board will also consider the language of a warrant article that will be presented to Camden voters at a special town meeting, held possibly around May 9. At that point, citizens will decide if they want to enter into the purchase and sales agreement as proposed.
The Camden Select Board voted unanimously March 15 at its regularly scheduled meeting to endorse a $175,000 purchase and sale agreement with B'D' Turman'D, which said it intends develop sound stages — soundproof structures — for use in the filmmaking industry.
The business would be called Camden Studios and terms of the sale would require the LLC to pay the town $1. In exchange, the company would be expected to create 24 net new jobs with a combined yearly wage/benefit of $40,000 per job within five years. If that does not happen, the company must pay $175,000 to the town.
The town currently assesses the land at $450,000; last summer, however, the town had the land reappraised, with a resulting value of $175,000.
B'D' Turman'D Entertainment LLC represents Larry Reed and Jerome Turman, of Milwaukee, and Bill Ferrell, of Los Angeles, all who work in the movie and broadcast industry. Ferrell and Reed, along with their attorney, Marty Greenberg, presented their proposal for the tannery land at the March 15 meeting of the Camden Select Board.
They also met in a closed door session with the Camden Select Board on Monday evening, March 14, in the Tucker Room at the Camden Opera House.
They had been in Camden for several days, meeting with town officials, as well as visiting Augusta to investigate public financing incentives for expanding their business to Maine. Ferrell had stumbled up finance.yahoo.com late last fall Camden's ad for "free land," and its unique attempt to attract job-producing business to the tannery lot in exchange for a 100 percent rebate."
The ad read: "The beautiful coastal town of Camden, Maine, is offering a 100 percent rebate on a prime site — to the right business," the town said. "The citizens of Camden have developed an innovative 'land for jobs' incentive that will offer a business, that can create good, year-round jobs, a 100 percent rebate on a prime business location. The 3.5-acre site is located in the heart of Camden on the Megunticook River, with commanding views of the mountains, all just blocks away from downtown and the Camden Harbor. It has three-phase power, sewer, water, and cable/broadband all in place — and is zoned to accommodate up to 300 workers and parking all on this site. In addition to the 100 percent rebate, other state incentives are available to the right business."
A public hearing on the proposed warrant article is scheduled for April 7, 7 p.m., in the Washington Street Conference Room. It is expected that Ferrell, Reed, and others involved with the potential business will attend that meeting, according to Brian Hodges, Camden's economic development director.
Smith said the town is scheduling a special town meeting in May for this particular project, despite the town already has its annual town meeting scheduled just a month later in June, because it provides the buyers with a decision from the town.
"It is reasonable to give them an answer in terms of the purchase and sales agreement before they invest more money into the project," said Smith. She said the buyers are already spending money on architects and engineers.
Courtesy of Village Soup
By Lynda Clancy
