SANFORD — Once a bustling textile factory where workers produced cloth under the familiar Goodall name, the vacant five-story mill at 13 River St. is scheduled to be sold at auction Monday. The auction of the mill, which is known as the Stenton Trust building, is set for 10:30 a.m. on site and will be held at the request of Savings Bank of Maine.

The Monday scheduling marks the fifth time an auction sale has been set for the property, but on all previous occasions the action has been postponed ”“ once because bids were too low, a bank representative said last year, and on three occasions because of unanswered environmental concerns.

This time, the auction is “absolute,” which means there is no minimum amount set, although there are years of real estate taxes, water and sewer fees outstanding and estimated at about $68,000. The real estate is assessed at $828,000.

Mike Carey of Tranzon Auction Co., said a few prospective bidders have looked at the property. Carey was at the mill Monday to give tours to those considering a purchase.

 Two reporters and a newspaper photographer showed up ”“ and one local businessman who said he was mulling a bid.

“I’m looking at it,” said Mark Patterson of Patco Construction before he walked through the building. “It takes so much money to pull them back and it’s so expensive to tear them down.”

Carey said he wasn’t bothered by the fact so few folks showed up to tour the structure, because some who have expressed interest had already seen it when the building was up for auction last year.

The building has some issues, including a leaky roof.

“Some parts of the building are in decent shape and some is pretty rough,” said Carey.

According to reports included with the auction packet, the federal Environmental Protection Agency conducted a removal action on the property in 2008. The EPA removed more than 50 drums and smaller containers of compounds containing corrosive and flammable wastes along with 11 old transformers, including five that contained polychlorinated biphenyls.

Back in 1995, 200 tons of petroleum-contaminated soil were removed from the property along with an 8,450 gallon underground storage tank, according to auction documents.

A federal Brownfields assessment turned up asbestos and lead paint inside, typical of old structures like Stenton Trust, which was built in 1922.

The mill was purchased by Jonathan Morse of Gateway Properties in 2000. A representative of Savings Bank of Maine, which holds the mortgage, last year said Morse had abandoned the property.

The building was once part of the Goodall textile empire and later a shoe factory. Since that time, several tenants have leased space at the property. A furniture manufacturer has been the only recent tenant but has moved and the vast, 294,000 square foot, five story mill is now vacant. Included with the property is an adjacent garage.

Carey said he’s optimistic about the mill’s prospect for sale ”“ and pointed to recent sales of mills in nearby Biddeford.

“A key piece is you need to have a community that supports (a mill conversion),” said Carey. “Sanford is working to have a sustainable downtown community. Sanford’s proximity to seacoast New Hampshire and Portland makes it appealing.”

The property is eligible for tax incentives, including New Markets tax credits and an Historic Tax Credit if the property is first placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Carey said the property could be turned into a space for light industrial applications or  for mixed use retail/comercial/housing space.

In general, he said, properties are moving.

“It’s clearly about price,” said Carey. “The folks we’re seeing they say they think it’s a good time to buy and they have a business model that works.”

— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.