Shuttered Cascade Grain plant sold at auction

By Stover E. Harger Iii

The South County Spotlight, Dec 23, 2009, Updated Dec 23, 2009

Cascade Grain — the Clatskanie ethanol plant that stopped production after only operating for 20 days last summer — was purchased in an auction Dec. 9.

The lone bidder, JH Kelly LLC, purchased the facility for $15 million, but hasn’t announced yet what it plans to do with the plant. In the past, the company has said it would like to find a buyer that would reopen the plant.

The plant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January and converted to Chapter 7 liquidation this September.

The Longview, Wash., company JH Kelly built the plant and has been attempting to recover $33 million in liens from it since it shut down. The company purchased the plant with credited money that was owed to it.

One market estimate for the worth of the plant was at $40 million.

“We were very disappointed when Cascade Grain succumbed to the downturn in the ethanol market, as did many ethanol plants across the country,” said JH Kelly President Mason Evans. “But we know the plant is well built and is capable of producing high quality product.”

The facility sits on a 43-acre site in Port Westward off of the Columbia River.

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