The site of a failed 5,400-acre wind farm in northern Penobscot County that sold for $3.25 million recently is the largest and most expensive piece of land in Maine sold so far this year, according to real estate records.
The Carroll Plantation plot includes both peaks and the ridgeline of Bowers Mountain and the northern slopes and most of the western and eastern terrain of Getchell Mountain. The location made news 10 years ago when the former owner and a subsidiary of First Wind wanted to build a 27-turbine wind farm called Bowers Mountain Wind that regulators rejected and then a pared down 16-turbine wind farm that also was rejected.
Maine Department of Environmental Protection staff who reviewed the smaller proposed wind farm said in 2013 that it would have “an unreasonably adverse impact” on the views of eight lakes that are among 14 “scenic resources of state or national significance” within 8 miles of the project site.
The sale of the land, owned by Maryland serial entrepreneur Doug Humphey, closed on May 25, Humphrey and his family used the land occasionally as a family compound since they bought it in 2006, Paul Hansen, a broker at Two Rivers Realty in Bucksport, said.
The new owner is a Maine logger who plans to harvest it for timber when the trees are ready in about 10 years, Hansen said. The timber was previously harvested before 2006 and is in the state’s Tree Growth Management Plan.
Clockwise, from left: One of five mountains on this 5,400-acre parcel of land in Carroll Plantation; This property in Carroll Plantation has 28,000 feet of water frontage on Dipper Pond and other streams; The kitchen on this 5,400-acre property in Carroll Plantation includes a commercial kitchen inside a dining hall. Credit: Courtesy of Kathleen Coogan
The previous highest land sale this year was $2.65 million in Rangeley and the biggest was 500 acres on Presque Isle, according to the Maine Association of Realtors.
The Carroll Plantation property is located on Dipper Pond Road east of Lee and southeast of Springfield near Route 6. It includes five mountain peaks, 12 miles of internal roads, 28,000 feet of stream frontage on Dipper Pond and a 10-acre pond.
The property has four small two-bedroom cabins, a dining hall with a commercial kitchen and an equipment building. It has a generator hookup for electricity but is off grid. There is a well on site and an existing sewer.
Hansen said he sold the property to former owner Humphrey, who recently made overtures about selling it.
“I called him and listed the property,” he said. “And within three days I got a full offer.”