More than 300 acres at what was Grant’s Farm in Saco was auctioned Thursday. Stef Keenan of Keenan Auction Co. had called it an “exceptional piece of property” because of its location 5 miles from the Maine Turnpike.
An auction Thursday to liquidate the real estate and other assets of Grant’s Farm in Saco generated over $2 million in sales, according to the auctioneer.
Marcel Bertrand, a local businessman, made the winning bid, according to The Boston Globe, and said he would search for ways to save the farm.
Auctioneer Stef Keenan of Keenan Auction Co. said the buyer of the farm acreage also purchased some of the irrigation equipment, which was sold separately, another indication that he intended to try to keep the land in agriculture.
The auction was broken down into three major components: the land, a home and farm equipment.
The 313 acres, including 87 acres of tillable fields and 221 acres of woodlands near the intersection of Grant and Buxton roads, sold for over $1.4 million, Keenan said. The home, which was custom built in 2015 and includes 10 surrounding acres, sold for $308,000, he said. The farm equipment sold for a total of over $300,000.
“The Grant family participated strongly today, and they were at the sale, and they were very pleased with the result,” he said.
Keenan said the auction drew about 170 online bidders and 200 on-site bidders, making for a standing-room-only crowd.
The auction followed a year-long dispute over the will of Richard Grant, the seventh-generation farmer who worked the land with his family until his death in 2017. The land had been farmed by the Grant family since it was given 25 acres as a gift from King George III in the late 1700s.
The auction was part of an estate settlement that called for dividing the proceeds between Grant’s widow and children. The farm was sold under a court order liquidating the estate of Grant, who died at 57 from a heart attack on his farm on Feb. 13, 2017.
Grant was survived by his mother, Claire Grant; his children, Trena Soucy, Julie Grant and Benjamin Grant; and his wife, Stacy Grant, the children’s stepmother. He also had several grandchildren.
The family members ultimately agreed that the farm property and equipment would be auctioned off, with half of the proceeds going to Stacy Grant. The other half would be split evenly between Julie Grant, Benjamin Grant and Soucy, according to court records.
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