OXFORD — Local economic leaders are working on efforts to rescue concrete and stone manufacturer MGA Cast Stone Inc. after the company hit financial rough waters, officials said Thursday.
The company, which supplies architectural precast concrete and cast stone products to customers throughout New England and the northeastern United States, owes up to $1.64 million in loans and since 2014, stands to be ordered to repay vendors as much as $54,000 for unpaid services.
It was not clear what portion of the loans the company has repaid. A message left for owner Gerard Hamann and other top officials was not returned.
Glen Holmes, director of business lending and economic development for Community Concepts Finance Corp., said he is working with the company to find a solution.
Holmes said confidentiality agreements prevented him from disclosing specific information. Generally speaking, the Lewiston-based nonprofit offers qualifying small businesses a variety of financial services, economic development education and microloans.
“This is a strong company working through some bumps — long-term, this is going to be a great addition to Route 26,” Holmes said, referring to MGA’s location in the heart of the town’s business district.
The company began in Hamann’s New Gloucester home in 2000 and by 2005, had expanded into a 12,000-square-foot space, according to MGA’s website.
In 2011, it purchased a 50,000-square-foot warehouse at 7 Oxford Homes Lane for less than $500,000, according to Sun Journal archives.
MGA grew over time. In February 2013, on the same day it announced a half-million-dollar investment in a computerized concrete mixing plant, it mortgaged business, real estate and personal property to secure $1.54 million in loans from Bangor Savings Bank, according to mortgage records.
In 2013, a company official said there were 30 employees.
In 2014, Bangor Savings Bank extended an additional $150,000 loan, at which time Hamann signed an intercreditor agreement, backed by a partial guaranty by the Finance Authority of Maine that prioritized loan repayment in the case of default.
As collateral, the loans are tied to the company’s machinery — at least half a million dollars by its own estimate — company building property, which is assessed at $745,000 by the town, and the Hamanns’ property in New Gloucester, assessed at $276,000.
A first and second mortgage on MGA Cast Stone and Hamann Properties LLC, the real estate company which owns the assets, are first priority for liens, followed by a second and third mortgage on the property of Hamann and his wife, Pamela.
Several months after the loans were secured, vendors began complaining their invoices went ignored or unpaid and, over the past year, a court has ordered MGA to repay thousands of dollars it owes to its vendors.
According to Oxford County District Court documents, last September, a staffing company from Pennsylvania obtained a writ of execution to collect $16,550, though it was not clear what the figure represented. Collection efforts are pending.
Two months later, MGA agreed to a repayment plan with a Portland employment staffing company for a total of $2,418, and a Londonderry, N.H., supply company for $5,998.
In April, a judge ordered MGA to pay $2,195 to a repair company in Westbrook for work in 2013. On June 22, MGA struck an agreement with an Old Orchard Beach transportation company to pay $5,100 in $750 monthly installments for work done in 2013.
Another Pennsylvania company has requested the company be found in default of $27,684 in unpaid goods.
Additionally, the company owes Maine Revenue Services $1,980 and the town of Oxford $4,756 in back taxes.
John Williams, executive director of the Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce, said he was also actively trying to find a solution and expects the issues to be resolved.
“We have been supportive from the perspective that we have been talking with and working through Glen (Holmes) and Community Concepts Finance Corp. and their efforts to help refinance and work with the debt issues,” Williams said.
ccrosby@sunmediagroup.net
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