MANCHESTER – the sale of the building housing Applejack Art Partners is on track and a closing is expected soon.
“We expect that the real estate closing will take place in the next week. probably in the next seven business days,” said Chief Financial Officer of Applejack Art Partners, Gordon Black.
The building is expected to be sold to WCW inc. – a new York mattress firm currently based in Hoosick Falls.
President of WCW inc., Jeff Wilkinson, said they hope to finalize the deal as soon as possible.
“We’re prepared for a closing as soon as we can make one happen,” Wilkinson said. “The timing involved in putting this all together has been difficult, but most everything is lined up for a closing right now and the hope is to close sometime by the end of next week.”
According to Applejack’s attorney, Jennifer Emens-Butler, the real estate will be sold to WCW inc. for $3 million. according to previous reports, Emens-Butler said the Applejack property was assessed in 2009 for $3.5 million.
WCW inc. is currently using about 50,000 square feet of the building primarily to perform manufacturing functions, Wilkinson said.
While Wilkinson said it was difficult to say when they might have all their operations moved into the building, there are plans to move other components of it into the building soon.
“The next building we’ll move will be our foam fabrication building and that we will move hopefully sometime within the next two to three weeks,” said Wilkinson. “Then we have our sewing plant that needs to be moved and I don’t know when we will move that currently. There’s not a date set for that.”WCW inc. announced plans to move its operations to Manchester in August. the company employs about 100 people, with some working at a call center in Bennington.
Prior to Applejack moving into the building – which they purchased in December of 2006 – it was left unoccupied for a period of time after Moore Wallace Computers left.
With Applejack Art Partners on the verge of liquidation, economic development officer Pauline Moore said having someone buy and occupy the building was advantageous.
“This [time] it’s really great that there won’t be a period where the building won’t be unoccupied,” she said.
McGaw Graphics – a company originally acquired by Applejack in 2009 – also currently operates out of the Applejack building. however, Black said that McGaw’s administrative offices would be relocating to the East Dorset Industrial Center on Route 7A. some of the operations will remain in the Applejack building though.
In a hearing on the disclosure statement on Monday, Emens-Butler said the judge addressed two minor issues – one of them being the timing of the sale of Applejack Art Partners assets to the United Kingdom based company Protocol Management Solutions, Ltd.
Emens-Butler said they are hoping to confirm the liquidation plan sometime in late December, which would finalize the deal.
“The confirmed plan would allow the liquidation by selling substantially all of its (Applejack’s) assets to Protocol for the credit bid and selling the excluded assets at auction,” wrote Emens-Butler in an e-mail. “The proceeds will be distributed and Applejack will no longer exist.”
The distribution of the proceeds would take place following both the sale of the building and the sale of Applejack’s assets. in the e-mail, Emens-Butler said the sale of Applejack’s assets to Protocol would take place immediately upon confirmation of the plan barring any objections. the excluded assets sale, she said, would be subject to the auctioneer’s schedule.
When Applejack goes out of business, the question then becomes what happens to the 75 jobs at the company. in a telephone interview on Tuesday, Black said that while he was unsure of how many, he acknowledged there would be some job loss.
“It would be great if everybody could maintain a job in some way. Our goal is to try to take care of everybody,” said Black. “We don’t want to see anybody unemployed, but we have to face the reality of the situation. It’s going to be difficult.”
Applejack filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last July and in December Protocol Management Solutions, Ltd. – a company that deals in telecommunications and other software consultancy and supply, according to the company’s Web site – purchased the company’s $1.7 million debt that was owed to Berkshire Bank.
According to previous reports, Emens- Butler said her understanding was that Protocol Management Solutions was going to buy continuing licensing agreements and pending contracts.
She added that the plan at one time was to have McGaw Graphics purchase Applejack Art Partners, but McGaw opted not to place a bid. McGaw and Applejack are both partially owned by Jack Appelman, who also owns Applejack Real Estate Partners, which in turn owns a number of commercial properties in the Bennington/Manchester area.
The plan was filed on May 23 with United States Bankruptcy Court in Burlington.
Applejack Art Partners was a company that bought licensing agreements from artists to sell reproductions. Black said that the company is still in operation on a small scale, but that they will cease to exist once a sale occurs.
