BANGOR – Members of the city’s planning board Tuesday night approved modifications to the site development plan for a nearly $12 million retail shopping center now under construction on Stillwater Avenue.
Bangor Parkade, a more than 242,000-square-foot complex slated to open next fall, will occupy the site of the former Queen City Mobile Home Park, located directly across from the new Interstate 95 interchange on Stillwater Avenue.
Bangor Parkade’s plans call for the construction of four commercial buildings that will house about a dozen businesses, including an anchor store and a sit-down restaurant.
While few specifics have been revealed, the anchor tenant is widely believed to be Kohl’s, a Wisconsin-based department store chain that sells name-brand clothing, home goods and small appliances, among other things. Kohl’s recently opened stores in Biddeford and Westbrook.
During Tuesday’s planning board meeting, Bangor attorney Timothy Woodcock, Bangor Parkade’s legal counsel, confirmed the restaurant tenant.
Texas Roadhouse Inc. will be among the businesses opening at Bangor Parkade, Woodcock said.
According to several on-line finance resources, Texas Roadhouse, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a full-service restaurant offering steaks, chicken, ribs, fish and vegetable plates as well as an assortment of burgers, salads and sandwiches.
As of the end of June, the company owned and operated 94 restaurants in 25 states, and franchised and licensed an additional 79 restaurants in 18 states.
Famed country music singer Willie Nelson is affiliated with the chain, a sponsor of his 2004 tour.
The planning board’s approval of changes Tuesday was unanimous, despite questions about changes to a buffer, though not the one critical to the project’s approval in May.
There also were questions about who was responsible for post-blast surveys of homes close to the development.
As a condition of rezoning in July of last year, property owner Judson “Bud” Grant and representatives of Bangor Parkade Inc. agreed to develop a 150-foot-wide buffer, amounting to 5.5 acres.
The buffer was meant to serve as a visual screen and will include a man-made pond being built as part of the development’s storm water management system.
In response to questions from planning board members and neighbors, Bangor Parkade’s landscape architect, Paul Brody of the Bangor design firm WBRC, acknowledged one end of a buffer along Stillwater Avenue had been narrowed to accommodate parking but that the density of plantings there would be increased to maintain the buffer’s effectiveness.
Some neighbors also had questions about blasting done while developing the drainage system at the site.
“We were told [by a project subcontractor] that it was our responsibility to pay for it,” said Tracy Pelletier of Drew Lane. If there was a problem, she said, “we were directed to put it on our homeowner’s [insurance].”
Woodcock, who represents Bangor Parkade, said that was not the case and that homeowners who had damage do have legal recourse through the blasting contractor.
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