Starbucks to open store in Bangor

BANGOR – Move over, Dunkin’ Donuts, the former Papa Gino’s building on Bangor Mall Boulevard soon will inhabit the only free-standing Starbucks north of Freeport.

City Code Enforcement Officer Dan Wellington said this week that the space at 38 Bangor Mall Blvd. could house the Seattle-based coffeehouse as early as August.

No date, however, has been set for its opening, he said.

“We’ve already issued permits for interior design and are in the process of accommodating a drive-through,” Wellington said.

Efforts to reach Starbucks officials for comment have been unsuccessful.

This will be the 12th Starbucks location in Maine. The company runs secondary coffee shops out of Target in Bangor and at the University of Maine’s Memorial Union in Orono.

The first Maine Starbucks opened in 1998 on Exchange Street in Portland’s Old Port. The ubiquitous coffee shop chain began in 1971 with its first store in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Today the business occupies more than 7,500 locations worldwide, according to its Web site.

The Bangor Mall Boulevard location, owned by Bangor-based developers Eremita & Valley, also will feature the only drive-through Starbucks in the state. Starbucks coffeehouses typically are more common in big cities where walking customers outnumber drive-through patrons, but as the company has expanded, so have its services, the Web site said.

The selected building formerly housed Papa Gino’s, a pizza chain that no longer has any operations in Maine. The space has been vacant since January 2002.

Wellington said the code enforcement office planned to discuss the proposed Starbucks at future planning board meeting, mainly because the drive-through could pose a problem.

“Normally with a drive-through, someone would just move in and take it over,” Wellington said. “But coffee seems to queue up more cars that any other drive-through.

“It’s proven to be something that we can’t wrap our hands around,” he added.

The building is set back 40 feet from the Bangor Mall Boulevard right-of-way line. Zoning laws require a drive-through to have at least 50 feet of clearance from the road. The setback also must be on land owned or leased by the applicant, in this case Eremita & Valley.

Attempts to reach Eremita & Valley for comment were unsuccessful Thursday.

Wellington admitted that the city zoning ordinances in general might need an update to accommodate drive-throughs.

“We are looking at the way we handle drive-throughs; they offer so many services now, we have to examine each one,” he said.