PRESQUE ISLE — An insurance conglomerate based in Hartford, Conn., has agreed to provide $35.6 million to finance the proposed Aroostook Centre shopping mall, according to documents filed Monday.

Subject to further conditions, CIGNA Investments Inc., a subsidiary of CIGNA Corp., would back the mall with a seven-year loan to Oneida Ontario Co., the developers of the project. CIGNA was created by the merger of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Co. and the Insurance Company of North America. The firm is a major institutional investor with an extensive real estate portfolio.

The loan would be used for construction and permanent financing and would carry an interest rate of 10.2 percent per year, according to financial documents filed Monday with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. The documents were part of Oneida’s application for a site permit from the DEP.

In the documents, CIGNA was described as 80-percent owner of the Maine Mall in Portland.

“Basic terms and conditions of CIGNA’s commitment (to the Presque Isle mall) is for 100 percent of project cost,” the documents said.

A letter from John A. Shaw, CIGNA vice president, to John J. Capenos, the president of Oneida Ontario of Clay, N.Y., outlined principal terms of the proposed investment loan.

“This letter is intended to be non-binding,” Shaw said. “CIGNA’s obligation to enter into the proposed transaction is subject to further negotiation, execution by the parties of a binding application-commitment, and approval by CIGNA’s investment committee.

“The initial funding into the escrow account will be contingent upon three of the four anchor department stores being under signed leases approved by CIGNA,” Shaw’s letter added. “Approvals as required by the state of Maine’s site location of development law must be in place and CIGNA must have approved plans and specifications and the development budget for the project.”

The loan amount will be funded into an escrow account in two steps. Initial funding at closing will be $17.8 million. Six months subsequent to the closing, the remaining $17.8 million will be funded into the escrow account, the CIGNA letter said.

Providing that necessary permits are received on a timely basis, closing of financing with CIGNA should take place in November. Funds would be released monthly from the escrow account to cover development costs and would be personally guaranteed by the borrowers. Borrowers also would be required to provide a guarantee of completion of construction.

The loan would be a fixed-rate construction loan that would convert to a participating first mortgage loan when construction is completed. The construction period would be the time from initial funding until all anchor stores are open and operating and 60 percent of mall shops are under signed leases.

CIGNA would receive a fee equal to 1 percent of the loan amount at closing.