CAMDEN – Borden Cottage, a luxury residential drug, alcohol, and co-occurring behavioral health treatment program on outer Bay View Street in Camden, transitioned to an independent ownership and operational structure, effective October 1. 

Since its establishment in 2015, the 12-bed Borden Cottage, which provides treatment for addiction, was under the clinical oversight of Harvard Medical School-affiliated McLean Hospital.

Its new leadership includes Tom Rodman, CEO of the company that owns the property, who will now serve as Borden Cottage CEO; Chief Operational Officer Allison Avery; Chief Administrative Officer / Executive Director Merrilee Larsen, LCPC, CCS; Medical Director Harold Amsel, M.D.; and Chris Feeley, director of business development and clinical outreach.

Borden Cottage employs approximately 30 clinical staff and operational team members.

"While we’ll remain eternally grateful for our strong McLean Hospital heritage, we are excited about the new opportunities for Borden Cottage," said Rodman, in an Oct. 4 news release. "Our focus is to continue to build on and deliver evidence-based treatment in a safe, welcoming environment that focuses on the whole person.  We surround our clients with wellness, healthy lifestyle and fitness, all on campus.  We’ll also be able to combine our individualized concierge care with the agility to enhance our services promptly, offer new insurance options, and maintain our leading-edge status."

Borden Cottage faced intense community scrutiny when it was first proposed in 2014. The 13.8-acre former estate at 235 Bay View Street had initially been turned into a high-end residential alcohol and substance abuse treatment facility for up to eight clients at a time, each paying approximately $60,000 for four to five weeks of treatment. Several years later, the facility was licensed to accommodate 12 beds.

Owners of the estate, Fox Hill Real Estate LLC (24 investors), had teamed up with the Belmont, Mass.-based McLean Hospital to establish the facility in the former privately-owned Borden Cottage that sits on a hill overlooking Penobscot Bay.

Philip Levendusky, associate professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and senior vice president for business development and marketing, as well as director of the psychology department at McLean Hospital, had advocated for the facility before municipal and state boards and agencies to attain permit status.

McLean had leased the facility, operating as a nonprofit. Fox Hill Real Estate LLC owned the land and buildings, and continued to pay real estate taxes to Camden, which in 2015, were approximately $100,000. In 2024, the property taxes are $128,686.

In February 2014, citizens lined up before the Camden Select Board arguing their positions as to why the town should, or should not, allow a zoning ordinance amendment concerning Fox Hill to proceed to a town vote.

Thirty residents, business people, attorneys and public relations personnel hired by the opposition spoke against the proposal, saying it would diminish property values, constitute spot zoning, create a dangerous environment, threaten the integrity of Camden’s zoning ordinance and destroy the character of the neighborhood. Twenty six residents, lawyers, business people, land use planners and Fox Hill investors spoke in favor of the Fox Hill proposal, advocating that the amendment be placed before voters. They said the proposal would energize the local economy in a town populated heavily by adults age 65 and older; that the proposal would preserve an historic property and match the quiet and private nature of the neighborhood; and with the collaboration with McLean Hospital, establish a stronger wellness agenda in the community. 

Fox Hill Real Estate, in conjunction with McLean Hospital, had spent eight months in a municipal process attempting to convince Camden to put before voters a zoning amendment change that, if approved, would allow the two entities to pursue a special exception for siting an alcohol rehabilitation center at Fox Hill. The process involved 11 lengthy and well-attended public meetings.

The Camden Planning Board voted 4 to 1, recommending the voters get the chance to vote on the proposed amendment.

In February of that year, Camden’s Select Board voted 3 to 2 against putting the amendment before voters.

Later that month, and in a surprise move, Fox Hill Real Estate LLC withdrew its zoning amendment proposal; instead, the investors plsaid they would create an eight-bed community living facility. That eliminated the need for a zoning change, and, according to the project proponents, ”fulfills the requirements for a permitted, residential use for zoning purposes.”

Fox Hill invoked the federal Fair Housing Act and the state’s 1997 Maine Community Living statute, which had been repealed and rewritten to conform to the Fair Housing Act. In doing so, Fox Hill asserted it needed no zone change, and only requisite building permits from the town to continue making renovations to the Borden Cottage.

Borden Cottage opened its doors to clients in March 2015.