June 18, 2007 at 1:33 pm by Larry
Rulison, Business writer
The
Nature Conservancy has purchased 161,000 acres of Adirondack forest
land that was owned by Finch, Pruyn & C0. for $110 million
The historic deal comes as Finch today completed the
previously
announced agreement to sell its assets to a group of private equity
investors.
The purchase of the land — considered by open-space
advocates to be
some of the most valuable in the park — was financed by loans from the
Open Space Conservancy and the John Hancock Life Insurance Co.
The Nature Conservancy is going to launch a fund-raising
campaign to finance the purchase, which was at $683 acres per share.
Finch sold its assets to the investment group Finch
Paper Holdings
LLC, which is led by Atlas Holdings LLC of Greenwich, Conn., and Blue
Wolf Capital Management LLC of New York City. Former Finch Pruyn CEO
Richard Carota will continue as chief executive; he also is an investor
in the newly formed company, which employs 850 people in Glens Falls.
As part of the deal, the Nature Conservancy has agreed
to pay local
taxes on the land and continue to sell timber from the land to the
Finch paper mill. Recreational leases on the land held by the owners of
hunting cabins will also remain.
|
