Abandoned former mill site in Bathurst set to be auctioned off in tax sale
3 former Smurfit-Stone mill properties assessed at combined $1,673,100 value
The New Brunswick Department of Finance is auctioning off an abandoned former mill site in Bathurst later this month, following years of broken promises from former owners who failed to develop the site and pay the property taxes owed on it.
Three separate parcels of land along Main Street will be subject to the tax sale, happening at the Best Western Plus in Bathurst on June 27, according to a notice issued on the Department of Finance website.
The notice does not say how much outstanding taxes are owed on the properties, which include PIDs 06046101, 06544052 and 20827002, totalling $1,673,100 in combined assessed value for 2024, according to Service New Brunswick.
Once a symbol of economic prosperity, the properties along the mouth of the Nepisiguit River have been a stain on the city's downtown for nearly two decades, said René Legacy, MLA for Bathurst West-Beresford.
"If you believe ... your downtown is kind of the heart of your city, to see it in such a such a dilapidated state, it doesn't really do much for our confidence and what we project in the world."
The properties used to be the site of a corrugated paper mill, which operated in the city for decades before Smurfit-Stone, the company which owned it at the time, shut it down in 2005, putting 270 people out of work.
In 2010, Bathurst Redevelopment Inc., a Canadian subsidiary of Illinois-based Green Investment Group, bought the property.
The Green Investment Group promised a "green cleanup," but the site was only stripped of valuable metals and equipment and left in disrepair, according to government officials.
After being forced to pay a $150,000 fine in 2016, Bathurst Redevelopment Inc. transferred the property to Raymond Robichaud, a businessman from Bouctouche, for $1.
Robichaud promised to clean up the site in order to build luxury condominiums and a strip mall, and the province agreed to waive $1 million owed in property taxes, so long as he stuck to his commitment to rehabilitate and develop the site.
Years went by, however, and as Robichaud battled with the City of Bathurst over who should pay to clean up the site, little was done.
Robichaud died in 2022 and while the properties were left to his estate, Legacy said there wasn't interest among relatives in keeping them.
Legacy said with potential new owners, hope has been renewed that the site will someday be redeveloped.
"I don't think there's going to be one fell swoop where everything's fixed and there's a hero that comes down and builds up a major project.
"I think what happens here is there's going to be multiple reiterations of development, so that this very large property becomes productive again."
CBC News asked for an interview with Bathurst Mayor Kim Chamberlain but did not receive a response by deadline.
In a written statement, Chamberlain said council and city staff have been working for months with Premier Blaine Higgs and his government on a solution for the site.
"We appreciate our two levels of government coming together to resolve the future of this property in our city," she said.
"I am optimistic that the announcement of a tax sale will be a sign of progress for Bathurst."
Potential costs to buyer
CBC News asked the Finance Department for an interview about how much in outstanding taxes are owed on the properties and exactly how the tax-sale process works, but did not receive a response by deadline.
Legacy said the last time he inquired in 2020, at least $2 million in taxes were owed on the mill properties, including two parcels not included in the tax sale.
According to the provincial Real Property Tax Act, properties subject to tax sale are not to be sold for less than the total taxes and penalties due and unpaid.
Another cost that a new owner would be left on the hook for is the environmental cleanup of the site.
Past estimates have put that cost as high as $12 million, but Legacy said it could cost less depending on how the properties get redeveloped.
"If the project is to make it an industrial site, then obviously the requirements for remediation are a lot less," he said.
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