Groton’s Garbo Lobster hopes to bring lobster processing back to eastern Maine after submitting the winning bid to buy a defunct lobster-processing plant that previously housed the nation’s last full-time sardine cannery, The Associated Press reports.
Owner Dave Garbo had the high bid of $900,000 Wednesday for the cavernous plant and a 58-foot pier in Gouldsboro, said Tranzon Auction Properties Vice President Mike Carey.
Garbo Lobster will co-own the plant with East Coast Seafood, a lobster distributor based in Lynn, Mass., with plans to eventually re-open it for lobster processing, Dave Garbo said. East Coast Seafood has other processing facilities in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The plant was auctioned after the previous owner, Massachusetts-based Live Lobster Co., defaulted on a loan to TD Bank.
Live Lobster bought the former Stinson Seafood cannery after it closed in 2010. It had up to 70 employees in the summer of 2011, but shut down operations in March.
Garbo Lobster also has a facility in Hancock, Maine, about 15 miles from Gouldsboro.
