Development moves ahead in Brewer EMH ready to begin work on building

BREWER – Area developers are making progress on several key projects in the city, ranging from a health care complex and some housing for the elderly to a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

“The critical projects that have been announced to date are moving ahead,” said Drew Sachs, economic development director, in a telephone interview Saturday. “A lot of other significant projects are in the works, so we’re feeling pretty good about the city’s future.”

Earthwork is under way at the top of Whiting Hill, where Eastern Maine Healthcare has started work on an expansion project. A curving access road has been built from Wilson Street to the construction site.

EMH is gearing up to start work on the first of four buildings it plans to complete in coming years, according to EMH Executive Vice President Kenneth Hews. Once completed, the four structures will provide up to 450,000 square feet of new office and clinical space. The four buildings, Hews said, will be connected by covered walkways.

Barring any unforeseen snags, the city’s planning board will consider granting site plan approval for the first building on Feb. 4. Hews said the project also is contingent on approval from the EMH board, which is expected to take the matter up later next month.

According to Hews, the project is aimed at easing the space crunch at Eastern Maine Medical Center. Another objective, he said, is to boost the region’s economy.

Though EMH will occupy some of the new space, the organization will be working with the city, which owns two nearby lots, to market space to for-profit medical and professional organizations. Those companies will be able to lease or purchase space on the EMH campus.

If all goes to plan, construction will start early this year.

“We want to start building as early as ground conditions allow,” Hews said.

The first building, which EMH hopes to occupy by November, will house support staff now working out of numerous leased sites throughout Bangor, Hews said.

“It’s a great site,” said Hews. “We’re very, very pleased with the work done at the site by Sargent & Sargent.” Cianbro Corp., general contractor for the project, hired the Hampden-based subcontractor to do earthwork at the site.

Also moving forward is progress on a 155,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter on outer Wilson Street.

The city’s planning board approved the company’s site plan in July. Wal-Mart, however, withdrew the plan to make some minor adjustments. The changes include the purchase of a small tract of adjacent land to improve the parking layout, according to Keith Morris, Wal-Mart’s community affairs manager for the New England region.

Wal-Mart will submit an amended site plan application this spring, he said.

Morris said earlier that the Brewer store would employ about 350 people. About 70 percent of those positions will be full-time.

The company is awaiting permits from the Department of Transportation and the Department of Environmental Protection, according to city staff.

Construction, originally slated to start this spring, now is expected to begin in the summer or fall, Morris said.

In a measure connected with the two Wilson street developments, the city is working on plans to extend public bus service to Wal-Mart and the EMH campus, City Planner Linda Johns said. The bus route now ends at Marden’s department store. Brewer also is looking into buying a larger bus for the Wilson Street run.

Elsewhere in the city, construction has started on a project that will provide new housing options for the frail elderly.

Lon Walters, president of the Woodlands Inc., is building two facilities on a site across from the Ellen M. Leach Memorial Home, located off Chamberlain Street.

The facilities are the Woodlands, a 59-bed residential care facility, and an attached 30-bed Alzheimer’s unit to be named Evergreen. The facilities will have a combined value of about $5 million.

Walters earlier said that the Woodlands’ services will complement those offered at the Leach Home, which serves a relatively independent population requiring relatively low levels of care and limited assistance.

The Woodlands will provide a higher level of care, including case management, the administration of needed medicines, around-the-clock nursing care and three meals a day. The Woodlands will offer a combination of private pay and Medicare-reimbursed rooms.

The project is expected to bring nearly 70 new jobs to Brewer, almost 50 of them full-time positions.