The sale and reopening of Coastal Maine Resources’ recycling and waste-to-energy plant in Hampden have been delayed while the prospective buyer works to finalize financing. Courtesy of Fiberight/Coastal Resources of Maine

The company trying to purchase a shuttered waste-to-energy plant in Hampden that had been serving more than a 100 Maine communities has lost the exclusive rights to the sale.

Delta Thermo Energy can still close the sale on what was originally known as the Fiberight facility owned by Coastal Maine Resources. But the Municipal Review Committee, which represents the solid waste interests of 115 Maine municipalities, says it and the facility’s bondholder trustee will now also consider proposals from other organizations too.

That’s because Delta failed to meet several deadlines to prove the company can finance the sale, which was a requirement of a memorandum of understanding with the review committee and bondholder trustee. The memorandum had an expiration date of March 31 this year, but the review committee had been granting extensions to Delta. The sale closing with Delta Thermo Energy Inc. was supposed to happen in May and then June, but Delta had not finalized financing.

In a letter to its members Friday, Michael Carroll, the executive director of the Municipal Review Committee, said Delta “still will have the opportunity to close on its financing in accordance” with the memorandum of understanding, but the review committee also “will be able to evaluate proposals from other entities.”

Central Maine communities that are members of the review committee include Albion, China, Freedom, Oakland, Palmyra, St. Albans, Thorndike, Troy, Unity and Vassalboro. Many communities had been sending their waste to the facility as part of a long-range deal brokered by the review committee.

Even though it has lost exclusive rights to the purchase, Delta “still intends to pursue financing to purchase and operate the Hampden plant,” Carroll wrote. “While the Bondholder Trustee and the MRC are still amenable to (Delta) completing the purchase, both are actively looking at other opportunities that would allow a closing to take place before the end of the year.”

The committee does not own the Coastal facility, but is the main or primary customer of the plant, and is its landlord because it owns the property on which the plant is located.

Carroll said recently that he had discussed in detail Delta’s financing hurdles with the review committee and the bondholder trustee, which would be selling the plant.

Coastal Maine, which closed its Hampden facility May 28, 2020, for financial reasons, was formed by Fiberight to finance, own and operate the facility. The bondholders’ trustee of the plant would be the one selling the facility to Delta. The facility is pledged as collateral for repayment of Coastal Maine’s loans to the trustee.