[A] company based in Washington has joined forces with the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. to complete the purchase of the former Neenah paper plant in Brattleboro.
Long Falls Paperboard LLC and BDCC are using state grants and loans to purchase and operate the plant. The sale was completed Dec. 31. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Adam Grinold, the executive director of the BDCC, said in a prepared release Monday that Long Falls Paperboard on Dec. 14 received a Vermont Employment Growth Incentive or VEGI award as part of a package of local and state incentives.
The plant will get up to $1.148 million from the Vermont Economic Progress Council that will be paid over the next five years if the company reaches certain conditions, including maintaining at least 70 full-time jobs with a payroll of more than $3.5 million and putting at least $1 million into capital expenditures, said Ben Rankin, the principal of Long Falls Paperboard.
The company also received loans from the Vermont Economic Development Authority and People’s United Bank. VEDA did not return a call Monday seeking details about the loan.
When Neenah, which is based in Georgia, announced in October that it was selling the plant, BDCC said 100 jobs would be lost. Neenah bought the former FiberMark plant in August 2015 for $120 million.
Rankin said Monday he didn’t know exactly how many people are working at the Brattleboro plant now, but that the plant is hiring. He confirmed that the company will also get state money to train workers.
He added that the capital expenditures funded by the VEGI payments will focus on reducing the consumption of natural gas and electricity at the mill.
“We have over $1 million in initial grant and loan funding for those efforts; the VEGI grant will allow the mill to continue to improve its economic resilience and reduce its environmental impact,” Rankin said.
BDCC is one of 12 regional development corporations that are supported by the state Department of Economic Development. BDCC doesn’t lend money, but it owns property and helps area businesses obtain financing and other assistance.
Grinold said that Long Falls Paperboard purchased the business and operations of the paper plant, and BDCC acquired the buildings and lands. The regional development corporation will work with the state Department of Environmental Conservation on an environmental assessment and eventually sell the property to Long Falls Paperboard, Grinold said in the release.
Grinold said Long Falls Paperboard also received assistance from Green Mountain Power’s economic development incentive program, Efficiency Vermont, the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development’s training program, and the Windham County Economic Development Program. The Vermont DEC and the town of Brattleboro will help the company pay for monitoring wells and brownfields cleanup.
“Many supporting organizations and partners worked long hours over the last 60 days to make this project happen, without whom this project would not have been viable in such a short period of time,” he said.
According to the BDCC, Long Falls Paperboard’s partners are Human Capital Investments LLC of Washington and Northrich Inc., a company founded in Quebec that produces packaging materials.
