Imagine you were fortunate enough to receive a gift of property from a relative. They had worked with you for years and invested significant amounts of money in the property to make it suitable for sale. In the end, they offer it to you to sell, with the only conditions being that you must use the proceeds to pay the realtor and use what’s leftover to rehabilitate future properties. This seems like a reasonable deal, and you market the property accordingly. 

You are contacted by three interested bidders. One offers your asking price of $60,000 for the land, a second offers $37,500 and a third proposes an offer of $1. While you might normally dismiss the lowest offer, it’s submitted with details of how to develop the land to benefit a segment of the public. It also includes a set of conditions to which you cannot possibly agree. 

Unfortunately, a similar scenario currently exists between the State of Maine’s Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) and the Town of Camden. 

Late last month, Camden submitted a proposal to the State of Maine seeking to purchase a former Superfund site that was being sold by DAFS as directed by a Superior Court order. The town offered $1 for the property, with plans to develop the site into a solar array. They offered to include electric vehicle charging stations and to share the energy generation credits from the site. To read recent media accounts, including a headline that says we rejected the towns plans, one would assume DAFS erred in choosing to reject Camden’s $1 offer. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

The process of marketing state-owned property occurs through the State of Maine's contracted commercial broker, the Boulos Company. 

The first step in the process is a broker opinion of value that looks at comparable sales and properties in the market area. That process helps determine a fair market value for the property, which, in this case, the leadership of both the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Department of Administrative and Financial Services (DAFS) approved. The property is then marketed for a minimum of two weeks. The state’s broker accepts all offers for a period and reviews them individually with DAFS' Bureau of Real Estate Management. 

DAFS marketed the South Hope property for sale at $60,000.  An abutter, who has an easement through the property, submitted a full asking price offer. Following this submission, the Town of Camden approached DAFS with an interest in putting in an offer. To accommodate the town, we delayed accepting the full offer as long as possible to ensure Camden could submit an offer, which they did…for $1, the charging station, energy credits, and a list of conditions. 

As Commissioner of DAFS and a member of Governor Mills’ cabinet, I share her goals of supporting Maine’s clean energy future. Camden’s plans to develop a solar array to support the town’s energy needs is forward-thinking and worthy of commendation. However, Camden’s offer was just not reasonable. 

With their $1 offer, the town asked DAFS to warranty the property rather than sell it “as-is” and required the ability to terminate their purchase of the property for any reason over the course of the next six months. Further, they failed to quantify the amount or value of the energy generation credits they offered.  As a reminder, the parcel in question is the former Union Chemical site.  

So instead, we moved forward and accepted the full offer, with no conditions, with the approval of the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the senior leadership of DAFS. Once the closing on the property occurs, the net proceeds will be deposited with the Department of Environmental Protection as a resource to their Maine Uncontrolled Sites Fund, as directed in the court order. 

When we notified Camden of the full offer acceptance, we noted our reasoning. During the conversation, we committed to working with the town, such as offering our resources to keep an eye out for land sales. We commended the town on the solar array plans. I’m dismayed the town didn’t include that part of the conversation in its recap to the press.  

Nevertheless, we are happy that Camden shares our mutual goal of responsible, environmentally friendly land use, and we plan on helping them achieve this in the most efficient and transparent way we can. This administration places partnership and cooperation in high esteem, and we look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together. 

Kirsten Figueroa is Commissioner of Maine’s Department of Administrative and Financial Services