Riverfront plan grows Amphitheater to be upstream

BANGOR – Millionaire businessman Christopher Hutchins has expanded his plans for a $3 million riverfront amphitheater, presenting the revised proposal to the City Council on Wednesday.

The proposed 600-seat facility, considered a focal point of the city’s $146 million waterfront redevelopment plan, will be built farther upstream under the new plan outlined during a council workshop session Wednesday morning .

Hutchins, president of Alternative Energy Inc., said the long-awaited project, newly designed to include a lobby, concession areas, restrooms and a lagoon, would be a valuable addition to the city’s once-industrial waterfront and well worth the wait.

“My only defense is that I’ve got it right,” Hutchins said, referring to rumored delays with the project, first announced in March of last year and tentatively set for completion this summer. “With a strong wind and the breeze blowing in the right direction, all the amphitheater components could be ready a year from now.”

City officials were enthusiastic about the new plan and expressed a willingness to work with Hutchins’ California-based architects to accommodate the new location, which Hutchins said would better protect the theater from the commercial bustle also planned for the area.

Mayor John Rohman said the amphitheater, which would include room to seat up to an additional 700 people on the lawn, was an integral part of the city’s plans for the waterfront.

“I’m thrilled we’re talking about details now,” Rohman said. “There’s no question this is a more significant project and now we’ve got to see how it fits into the plan.”

The city’s master plan for the waterfront originally linked the amphitheater to a centrally located, $18 million hotel. Negotiations concerning the hotel are under way with developer Thomas Walsh, a Bangor native.

Under Hutchins’ proposal, the amphitheater would be moved closer to the downtown – a development that has caused city planners to consider retooling their plans for the 28 acres of city-owned waterfront property between Main Street and the Penobscot River.

The Hutchins family gift gave the city’s plans for the waterfront a boost when first announced last year. The city already has about $15 million in state, federal and private funds to develop the area, which city officials hope will attract an estimated $100 million in private funds.

The planned waterfront development includes a high-end hotel, a 175-room economy hotel, up to three office buildings, a 60,000-square-foot retail and restaurant pavilion and a 30,000-square-foot nautical center adjacent to marina facilities.

The proposal also includes development of a conference center, a parking structure, and riverfront trails and amenities.

With the proposed amphitheater now designed to project into the river and include a lagoon, the new plan likely will invite strict scrutiny from the Mane Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which reviews any plans affecting the river.

Hutchins said he would look to lease the parcel from the city to build the amphitheater, which would host the Penobscot Theatre’s Maine Shakespeare Festival. When the lease expires, the amphitheater would become the property of the city, Hutchins said.

Hutchins said he hoped to have the needed permits for the project by November and have the amphitheater near completion in time for the National Folk Festival, slated to begin its three-year stint in the city in August 2002.