Specialty alcohols and essential ingredients manufacturer Pacific Ethanol entered into a deal to sell 134 acres of real estate, a rail loop, and grain handling assets at the company’s Magic Valley plant in Burley, ID to Liberty Basin LLC.  

“The sale of real estate and grain handling assets at our Magic Valley facility to Liberty Basin LLC further demonstrates our commitment to strengthening our balance sheet through monetizing idled assets at a value accretive to shareholders and repurposing the production assets,” Mike Kandris, CEO of Pacific Ethanol, said in a company release Monday. “Liberty Basin provides a great strategic alliance for managing grain delivery to the renewable fuel plant and to meet animal feed demand in the Idaho markets. Pacific Ethanol will continue to own the ethanol plant with the intent to upgrade product value prior to restarting production.”

Liberty Basin will pay $10 million in cash to acquire the assets. Pacific Ethanol plans to retain 25 acres at the site and a terminal. The sale is slated to close on or before Nov. 30, 2020 pending the completion of customary closing conditions.

“As we have said in our recently announced strategic realignment toward a business focus in specialty alcohols and essential ingredients, Pacific Ethanol will repurpose or sell its idled plants. This sale is a first step toward the objective to add value to our Magic Valley plant. We will continue with our strategic realignment plan and anticipate communicating additional transactions in the future,” Kandris said.