Arts, craft store set to open at Parkade

BANGOR – A New Jersey-based chain of craft and hobby stores will be among the tenants of Bangor Parkade’s retail shopping center, now being built on Stillwater Avenue.

A.C. Moore is scheduled to open a Bangor store in October, company spokeswoman Melissa LaMora confirmed Tuesday.

A.C. Moore operates arts and crafts stores offering a variety of traditional and contemporary arts and crafts merchandise. Since its first store opened in New Jersey in 1985, the company has grown to more than 90 stores, all of them in the eastern United States.

LaMora said the Bangor store will be the chain’s second in Maine. The first is located in South Portland.

Though it is still too early to determine the Bangor store’s square footage, LaMora said the chain’s stores typically include areas dedicated to art, candles, floral products and accessories, frames, children’s crafts, scrapbooking, seasonal crafts, weddings, woodworking and yarn.

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.

Texas Roadhouse Inc. will be the restaurant tenant, a project official confirmed last month.