A long-vacant industrial site along the Penobscot River in Bucksport has been sold to Dysart’s.
Dysart Realty Co., an LLC affiliated with the Hermon-based family business known for its truck stops, bought the 13.47-acre property, according to documents recorded Tuesday in the Hancock County Registry of Deeds.
It comes after the property spent years on the market and other possible sales fell through. The new owners could potentially bring industrial activity to Bucksport and the river, though it’s not clear yet what plans they have for the property.
The sale also comes after a proposal to revive dormant freight rail lines between the town and Bangor, which is currently under federal review. The purchase price for the property was unavailable Tuesday.
“It really is a sign that Bucksport is here and we’re moving forward,” Rich Rotella, the town’s economic development director, said of the property sale and rail line lease.
Listing agent Thomas Dunham said it was a challenge to find a buyer with a large enough business to build and use on the Sprague site, which has deep water access to the river and proximity to town utilities. A more recent proposal would have required rail access, which at the time was not running, he said.
“It’s a well-known family and they’re very responsible, and that pleases me,” Dunham said last week, before buyers’ identities were public.
Dysart family members declined an interview request through him last week, and did not return requests for comment Tuesday.
The company operates restaurants and truck stops in the Bangor area, along with Hermon truck service center and a marina in Southwest Harbor. Dysart’s also sells and transports fuel for trucks, heating fuels, petroleum and lubricants.
Known as the Sprague North property and the “coal pocket” locally, the property was once a delivery port for coal and sulfur, then a storage site for large tanks of heating oil until 1995.
Axel Johnson, the former owner of Sprague Energy who kept the property after the company was sold in 2022, applied last month to modify its state submerged land lease around the footprint of its decayed pier. That could allow a pier or dock to be rebuilt.
The property has been floated over the years as a site for a coal-fired generating plant, an industrial park for small boatbuilders and a spot to take apart decommissioned warships, according to Bangor Daily News archives.
In more recent years, ideas have included building houses, battery storage and solar generation, according to the town and Dunham. It most recently hit the market for $500,000 in July 2023.
The parcel has also stood out as one of the few industrial properties available near downtown as Bucksport continues to try to attract new businesses after the closure of its paper mill in 2014.
Rotella described the property’s potential as “endless” and an opportunity to bring more economic stability and a contribution to the tax base.
Bucksport has also seen its “fair share of disappointments” from past local projects that have been announced but never came to fruition, he said, such as the proposed Whole Oceans fish farm on the majority of the former mill site that has yet to break ground; while trying to bring industry to town, Rotella has wanted to avoid getting local hopes up again.
This week’s project developments are making behind the scenes work public, he said, and he’s glad to see the Sprague property in the hands of a local, trusted family.
