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Borden Cottage, a luxury substance abuse and mental health treatment center in Camden that charges more than $50,000 per month for treatment, has been sold for $6 million.
According to real estate transfer tax documents filed with the state, 258 Andover Street, a limited liability corporation registered in Florida, bought the property in late April.
A few days after the sale, the new owner entered into a five years lease agreement with Borden Cottage Treatment Facility LLC. The lease gives the tenant an option to purchase the property three years after the beginning of the lease term, according to a document filed with the Knox County Registry of Deeds in late April.
Borden Cottage, a 16,000-square-foot mansion located on a quiet, wooded stretch of Bay View Street, is visible only from Penobscot Bay, which it overlooks. But it attracted speculation this spring, when TMZ reported that pop music icon Britney Spears was undergoing treatment at the facility.
Borden Cottage did not respond to a request for comment about the sale.
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The 13.8-acre estate, which once belonged to Charles Cawley, the co-founder and longtime CEO of former credit card lender MBNA, offers an outdoor pool, yoga and music studios, a bowling alley and a theatre as well as a withdrawal management facility for people coming off of substances.
Established in 2015, Borden Cottage initially was under the clinical oversight of McLean Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, but transitioned to independent ownership in 2023.
When first proposed in 2013, the rehab facility met stiff resistance from the community. Neighbors filed a federal lawsuit trying to block its creation that was ultimately dismissed.
The owner of the property paid nearly $130,000 in taxes to the town of Camden in 2024, the most recent year for which figures were available.
