Downtown retailers relieved at site choice

BANGOR – Moving the courthouse a half-mile away will change the retail neighborhood downtown, no doubt, but people who make a living near the 100-year-old building expressed cautious relief at Friday’s announcement.

The Penobscot County Courthouse fronts on Hammond Street, but the state has decided to building a new structure closer to Kenduskeag Stream, at Washington and Exchange streets.

“It’s definitely going to impact this area,” Leslie Thistle said Friday at the Bangor Wine and Cheese Co., one of her three Hammond Street establishments across from the courthouse. “It’ll affect my restaurants, especially the Courtyard Grille, which benefits greatly from jury duty, attorneys and office workers.”

Thistle said a significant percentage of her lunchtime trade is generated from the courthouse crowd. Attorneys often stop by her wine and cheese shop for their morning coffee and newspaper, and one judge buys Thistle’s homemade soup three times a week.

She expressed relief that the courthouse will stay downtown.

Thistle wondered what would happen after the move to the old court buildings, as she looked across the street at the imposing stone courthouse and its manicured grounds.

In fact, some county-only operations, such as Probate Court and Penobscot County’s dispatching, will remain on Hammond Street.

“We go from empty buildings to filling them to leaving them empty,” she mused. “Maybe they’ll become the new police station.”

The Vault Cafe in the Heritage Building is located just down Hammond Street from the courthouse. It’s another popular coffee spot for attorneys and other court workers. Employee Kristy Doak, who was making the coffee Friday afternoon, was sanguine about the news.

“We get a lot of business from the courthouse,” Doak said. “I think it will definitely impact us. … But most of our business comes from this building and from passers-by.”

Trerawan Pariyanont, an employee of Thai Siam restaurant at the corner of Main and Hammond, said many courthouse workers come by her restaurant for lunch – despite an ongoing problem: lack of parking spaces. “That’s a big problem here,” she said.

Pariyanont said she is hopeful that the 100 University of Maine System employees scheduled to move into the former W.T. Grant building downtown this fall will have a positive impact on area business.

“Change is good, you know,” Pariyanont said. “Good for the city.”