Racino may be sited off raceway Nearby areas eyed for Penn facility

BANGOR – Though Bass Park figures heavily into Penn National Gaming Inc.’s plan to build a $75 million gaming complex in Bangor, the company hasn’t ruled out putting it elsewhere in the vicinity.

The state’s slots law, as amended by the Legislature, allows the racino to be built within a 2,000-foot radius of the center of Bangor Raceway, the city’s historic harness racing track.

Penn National spokesman Eric Schippers confirmed this week that Penn National has been exploring other opportunities within that radius.

“The city has asked us to continue to explore [alternatives to Bass Park],” he said.

Asked if Penn was engaged in negotiations with any particular landowners, Schippers had this to say:

“That’s probably too strong a way to put it. We have had some discussions.”

The spokesman said the company has engaged in discussions with at least two other Bangor commercial property owners.

Besides Bass Park, that development circle includes a portion of the city’s waterfront, a section of the Main Street commercial corridor and some industrial land along Interstate 395, as well as several residential streets.

Though the circle also includes the residential neighborhood around Bass Park, Schippers said Friday that Penn has no interest in that land.

“Right now our focus is on Bass Park,” he said.

Conceptual plans submitted to the city so far show a 115,000-square-foot gaming facility, a four-level parking garage for 1,500 vehicles, surface parking lots, access roads, drives and infrastructure, all at Bass Park.

Plans show that 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.

City officials and residents alike have expressed concerns that the racino would eat into land at Bass Park now used for parking during large-scale events, such as the annual folk festival and smaller ones, such as the Bangor Garden Show and Bangor State Fair, some of the events that are Bass Park’s bread and butter.

Penn National has been listening to those concerns and is looking at other places.

“We want to be able to show the city that we have exhausted all of our options,” Schippers said.

According to Schippers, Penn considered the former Saucony shoe factory “way back in the beginning” of the scoping process. That building since has become home to Beal College.

He also confirmed that Penn has had talks with members of the Mahaney family, owners of Erin Co., which operates the Holiday Inn just across Main Street from Bass Park, one of the few parcels large enough to accommodate the proposed racino.

Penn also has spoken with the Miller family, owners of Miller’s Restaurant, a smaller property that could serve as a temporary slots facility.

With nothing solidified, however, property owners and their representatives this week said they were unable to speak on the record about their discussions with Penn National.

City officials also declined comment on off-site racino possibilities, claiming they are bound by executive session laws.

City Solicitor Norman Heitmann, however, did say that shifting the racino off Bass Park would have a negligible effect on any revenues Bangor stands to receive as the facility’s host community.

During a visit to Bangor last September, 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 is thinking about replacing with an arena elsewhere, and the racetrack, which must be maintained if Penn is to remain eligible to operate slots here.

Schippers said this week that there would “be no quick switch” if the company ultimately did decide to build offsite.

“That would trigger a whole bunch of things,” including discussions with the city and the public, he said.