BANGOR – The University of Maine System will begin moving into the former W.T. Grant building downtown beginning Tuesday, Oct. 4.

Traffic related to the move will be confined to the Franklin Street side of the building and may cause periodic delays in traffic, UMS spokesman John Diamond said this week.

The relocation of about 120 UMS employees from their quarters near Bangor International Airport will take about two weeks because the system is “trying to minimize the disruption to our day-to-day operations,” he said.

Some of the furniture will be moved into the new location on Oct. 4 and 5 while the rest will be moved on Oct. 17 and 18. Employees will start moving in on Oct. 5.

Announced almost two years ago, UMS’ move into the top three floors of the historic Grant building on the corner of Central and Hammond streets is part of a land swap agreement with the city.

The Epic Sports retail store will continue to occupy the bottom level of the building and will share an entryway with the university system.

The first group of UMS employees to move will be those from Auburn Hall, which sits behind the administration building on Maine Avenue and houses much of the human resources and finance departments, Diamond said.

Once those workers are in place, the plan is to move employees now located in a building near the University College of Bangor campus who work on Project Enterprise, a new plan aimed at streamlining UMS business and administrative practices and services.

The last to move will be employees from the main administration building, including UMS Chancellor Joseph Westphal and other members of the senior staff, according to Diamond.

“Everyone should be in the new building by October 21,” he said.

A permanent sign denoting the University of Maine System’s new home was installed above the Central Street entryway earlier this week and “makes it more real to people who have been waiting for the move to actually happen,” he said.