Penn unveils racino plan Location of parking, impact on structures, fair broached

BANGOR – The gaming company poised to open Maine’s first racino unveiled detailed plans for the multimillion dollar facility at Bass Park during a meeting Monday night with city officials.

A gaming facility with 1,500 slot machines and an attached parking garage for at least that number of vehicles are among the key elements of Penn National Gaming Inc.’s vision for the complex, which is home to historic Bangor Raceway.

During a workshop with city officials, members of the Pennsylvania-based gaming and racing company’s management team outlined details for the proposed combination racetrack and casino. The project still faces numerous regulatory obstacles, including the formulation of state laws governing the slots, a city zoning change and site plan approval.

Penn National holds the development rights for Bangor Raceway, the only location in Maine eligible for slot machines, which required both statewide and local voter approval. Bangor voters approved slots in a citywide referendum last June and Maine voters did so in a November referendum.

Penn spokesman Eric Schippers said the purpose of the session with city officials was to get some feedback now so that any issues or concerns can be addressed before the racino’s site plan and other planning and design documents are made final.

Schippers said the Bangor racino will create 400 to 500 new jobs, most of them full-time and with benefits.

“We hope to start seeing the moving of earth in May 2005,” he said.

Steve Snyder, Penn’s senior vice president for corporate development, said that coming up with a redevelopment plan for Bass Park that worked for Penn and the city was no easy feat, given what already exists there. Bass Park houses the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center, which the city plans to replace with an arena elsewhere, and the racetrack, which Penn needs to be eligible to operate slots here.

Once existing structures are removed from the space equation, he said, “We’re just not left with a lot of space.” To that end, he said, Penn’s planning approach was to look at the “lesser of two alternate evils.” He said Penn looked at each new structure it wanted to build with an eye to how it would affect existing structures. The idea, he said, was to minimize the domino effect.

When it came to concerns and issues, parking ranked among the biggest challenges facing Penn and the city, especially next year, when construction is expected to be in full swing and available parking at Bass Park will be at a minimum. The parking crunch could extend into the next year if construction still is under way.

During a presentation for city officials, Snyder and Ed Hanson, project manager for the Bangor racino project, said that Penn plans to build a roughly 90,000- to 100,000-square-foot, one-level gaming facility, with an adjacent four-level parking garage

The structures would be located in the large parking area behind the Irving gas station on Main Street, overlooking Bangor Raceway. The parking garage would be located just behind the casino complex. Because of the topography, the portion of the garage closest to the racetrack would be built into a hill. Because of that, all four levels of the garage will be seen from the Main Street side, but only two levels will be seen from the side closest to the track.

The company also plans to build other parking lots, three in the first phase of development and another in the second.

As things stand, the statue of Paul Bunyan that has overlooked Main Street since 1959, the nearby wooden bandstand and Bangor’s 4-year-old skate park all would remain, though the skate park would move slightly to accommodate the main entrance road into the facility.

“I do see that you saved Paul Bunyan and the skate park,” Councilor Gerry Palmer noted. “I’m pleased to see that the plan as configured here today allows for that.”

The long-term future of the Bangor State Fair, which each year draws more than 60,000 people to Bass Park, is less certain. If Penn wants the fair relocated, it must provide the city two years’ notice and $1 million. City Solicitor Norman Heitmann said Monday that no such request has been made.

The current thinking is to move the carnival operation of the fair, which yields the city profits of $20,000 to $80,000 a year, into the center of the racetrack.

Under that scenario, the agricultural components would move into the track’s horse barns, which, unfortunately, have stalls instead of open pens and aren’t designed for easy access to animals by judges and visitors, Bass Park Director Mike Dyer said in July.

But if the fair must move out of Bass Park, its agricultural component would be the most difficult aspect to maintain, largely because the city would be hard-pressed to find a site that offers the infrastructure available at Bass Park, which includes several barns and pens and access to power, water and exhibit space.

Moving the carnival midway, now operated by Fiesta Shows, would be less of an issue because Fiesta brings its own infrastructure and generates about 70 percent of the electricity it needs. With the likelihood of a racino in its future, the city’s contract with the company now is renewed annually.

Though Penn and city officials still are grappling with parking issues related to the construction, city officials suggested that the former railroad “roundhouse” site on the banks of the Penobscot River might help ease the parking crunch.

Until the parking facilities are completed, parking for major events at Bass Park, such as the Bangor State Fair, scheduled concerts and shows and the annual high school basketball tournament, will be at a premium. Penn and city officials still are grappling with that challenge.

Councilor Frank Farrington, however, took a longer view. He suggested that the city and Penn explore the concept of using the land near the corner of Main and Buck streets, now used as a park, as a site for possible parking, which could prove useful in the second phase of development, which calls for the addition of a small hotel.

Snyder noted that the hotel, which would have 100-150 rooms, is a requirement of Penn’s development agreement with the city that only will be built if income reaches $60 million a year.

City Manager Edward Barrett said relocating Paul Bunyan and the other elements of the park to make way for parking already had been contemplated, but he and staff would take another look at it and obtain some comment from the public.

“We have not seen a lot of enthusiasm for that [concept], from the council or anyone else, so it is not our intention to pursue that,” Barrett said.

In terms of traffic, the entrance into the racino complex will be on Buck Street, between Main Street and the existing Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center. The entrance will accommodate one-way traffic only, with all traffic exiting via Dutton Street, which runs between the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce property and the Main Street Irving station.