A New York-based alternative fuel company that pledged 18 months ago to convert Augusta's former Pfizer pharmaceutical plant into an ethanol refinery confirmed Wednesday that it might sell the property.

Xethanol Corp.'s much-hyped acquisition of the facility through a joint venture partner in August 2006 generated citywide excitement but has yet to produce a drop of ethanol.

The skeleton crew of employees at the plant, which was supposed to employ up to 150, said Wednesday that company officials informed them the facility is for sale.

Official comment was referred to Xethanol Executive Vice President Richard Wilson, who refused to answer questions but issued a prepared, one-sentence statement: "Xethanol is considering all alternatives for our facility in Augusta, including a possible sale."

City officials were unaware the 30-acre property was back on the market. Karyn Nixon, the executive assistant for Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver, who was out of the office Wednesday, said Xethanol had "cut off" communications with the mayor's office more than a year ago.

Community leaders greeted officials with Xethanol's majority-owned joint venture, CoastalXethanol LLC, at an August 2006 ribbon-cutting ceremony, where company officials told officials, dignitaries and visiting schoolchildren that the plant would initially produce corn-based ethanol before making a transition to cellulose-based ethanol using waste from paper mills.

But quiet speculation about the proposed refinery's future emerged after Xethanol announced several construction delays before acknowledging in mid-2007 that it had no timeline for starting up the east Augusta facility.

Xethanol said last spring during an investor conference call that it had recouped nearly 40 percent of $8.2 million it spent to buy the Pfizer Inc. property by selling off scrap metal and machinery.

Employees at the facility, some of whom previously worked for Pfizer, said the pharmaceutical company specifically sought a buyer that was not a rival in the drug business out of fear it would restart the facility as a drug manufacturing plant.

Phone messages left with a Pfizer spokesman Wednesday were not immediately returned.

Xethanol in November settled seven shareholder lawsuits that alleged it misrepresented its management's experience and its connections to investors with histories of stock fraud.

A month later, the company said it would "refine its strategic plan" because of "changing ethanol markets and other economic factors affecting our current business."