SOUTH BEND -- The New Energy Corp. ethanol plant cost more than $180 million to build in the early 1980s.

But when it was sold at auction last week as part of the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, the winning bid came in at just $2.5 million.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Harry C. Dees Jr. approved the sale Tuesday to a joint venture between Maynards Industries, based in the Detroit area, and Biditup Auctions Worldwide, which is in Los Angeles.

The sale could spell the official end of the ethanol plant's nearly 30-year run on South Bend's southwest side.
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