Cate Street Capital still hoping to close financing soon for planned US$140M wood pellet plant in Millinocket, Maine, after investment firm withdraws at least US$20M it had considered committing to project, citing changes in proposed plant design

Allison Oesterle

PORTLAND, Maine , July 1, 2014 (Bangor Daily News) – An investment firm has withdrawn at least $20 million it considered committing to Thermogen Industries, the company created and managed by Cate Street Capital that plans to build a high-tech $140 million wood pellet plant in Millinocket.

Portland-based CEI Capital Management, the for-profit subsidiary of Coastal Enterprises Inc., said in a written statement that Thermogen's change of plans for its wood pellet plant in February meant it no longer met underwriting requirements. After three years working with banks, company representatives and community leaders, CEI wrote that the "decision was not made lightly."

Alexandra Ritchie, managing director for Cate Street Capital, reportedly told the Portland Press Herald that the decision presents another obstacle for completing financing for the project but that the company still hopes to close financing for the project in the near future. She told the Bangor Daily News earlier this month that "an optimistic timeline would have us breaking ground in the early fall."

Ritchie did not respond to an email and call early Tuesday seeking more information about the company's financing plans.

The company in February scrapped its plan for a $70 million pellet plant using a technology similar to microwaving called torrefaction in favor of a $140 million pellet plant using a different process pioneered by a Texas company, Zilkha Renewable Energy.

In addition to $20 million in credits through the Maine New Markets Tax Credit program, CEI planned to allocate an unspecified amount of tax credits to the project through a similar federal program started in 2000 to spur economic development in rural areas.

The program allows investors in qualified community development entities, like CEI Capital Management, to get the equivalent of 39 percent of their investment back in the form of tax credits, over a period of seven years.

Along with a subsidiary of CEI Capital Management, the Finance Authority of Maine had approved three entities to receive tax credits for investing in Thermogen: Missouri-based USBCDE Sub-CDE 101 LLC and CCG Sub-CDE 25 LLC, based in New Jersey.

Representatives from those other entities were not immediately available Tuesday morning for comment about their planned investments in Thermogen.

Qualifying companies don't receive the tax credits approved by FAME until an investment is made. Bill Norbert, FAME's spokesman, said in an email that the agency has not been notified that investments from the other entities have been made, but noted that the investment firms have a couple of years to do so.

Upon approving the tax credits in August 2013, FAME officials said in a statement they thought the investment would be made within 180 days. The news that CEI has withdrawn its tax credit allocation from the project comes 211 business days after that decision.

CEI said in its statement that Cate Street Capital may submit another application for the new market tax credit program in the future, starting that process anew.

The company is also in line for $16 million in financing through FAME's major business expansion program, which is contingent on its payment of past due taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and the towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket.

CEI's withdrawal is the latest hurdle for the project, which faces a 2 p.m. Thursday deadline from Millinocket officials to pay back property taxes with proceeds from the company's auction of its No. 11 paper making machine and other equipment last week. If that deadline is not met, town officials said they would reinstate a lien against the company's papermaking equipment sold at auction.

That lien would prevent transfer of the equipment, the sale of which was to pay the company's past-due taxes to the Internal Revenue Service and the town.

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