City prepares for increased traffic, parking needs of Hollywood Slots

BANGOR – City officials expect an influx of traffic this week along Main Street with the opening of Hollywood Slots at Bangor, but not the near-gridlock that accompanied last month’s opening of the Parkade mall on Stillwater Avenue.

“We’ll watch it and, if necessary, we’ll jump in and direct traffic,” Bangor Police Chief Don Winslow said Monday about today’s private opening of the slot machine facility and the public opening set for Friday.

Last month, traffic backed up along Stillwater Avenue by the Bangor Mall with the opening of the Parkade mall. Heavy rains that sent many to the mall added to the usual crush of curious motorists and customers that comes with the opening of a new shopping area. What they found were clogged roads as traffic lights weren’t timed properly.

The grand opening of Hollywood Slots – featuring 475 slot machines – will be different, city officials said this week. The Main Street facility will open to the public Friday afternoon, but the facility will hold a private opening today for 600 to 700 people.

Unlike the Parkade mall, Hollywood Slots was developed on the site of the popular Miller’s Restaurant, so the city already had extensive experience with traffic and parking issues, Bangor Code Enforcement Officer Dan Wellington said. The project didn’t require a traffic study or new lights to be added, he said.

Jim Ring, director of infrastructure and development support for the city, isn’t quite sure what to expect. He is anticipating the usual grand opening interest, but with the slots facility open from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. most days, peak use times may be more evenly distributed during the day. Spread out, the traffic won’t necessarily add significantly to the afternoon traffic rush, as people head home from work.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how things play out,” Ring said Tuesday.

Ring and Wellington said that any influx would smooth out as the newness of the facility wears off.

“I think it will normalize pretty quickly,” Wellington said Monday. “Traffic will not be a problem.”

Parking may be more of a long-term issue, however.

Wellington said there might be times when more parking space is needed than the existing 219 parking spots allow. That was the case when it was a restaurant and holiday crowds overflowed into neighboring streets in search of parking.

City officials determined that 219 parking spaces would generally be enough for the slots facility, well above the one spot for every four customers that such entertainment facilities are required to have.

Hollywood Slots and its parent company, Penn National, have a backup plan in place to deal with any overflow. A shuttle operated by Cyr Bus Line will run between Hollywood Slots and Penn National’s off-track betting facility at Bass Park, which has nearly 1,100 parking spots just down the street from the slots operation.

The shuttles will “constantly load and go” on weekends starting Friday, Amy Kenney, manager for marketing and public relations for the slot facility, said Monday. The shuttles will run as necessary, and their times of operation could be expanded, she said.

“We’ll do our best to make sure our guests do not wait very long at both locations,” she said.

Even with shuttles available, city and slots officials are preparing for extreme situations, when both the Hollywood Slots parking lot and the Bass Park lots are full. That’s a likely proposition.

Although the parking lots at Bass Park may seem large, the 975 spots in the main lot and the 110 spots on the civic center lot can fill up quickly during the winter basketball tournament and during concerts, wrestling events and the Shrine Circus, Bass Park Director Mike Dyer said Tuesday.

“I expect that at times that will be an issue,” said Dyer who noted that Hollywood Slots officials have asked for a schedule of high-attendance events to help them plan for times when more parking is needed.

Dyer is optimistic that even these challenges can be overcome. With a tide of thousands of people attending the tournaments each day, people manage to find parking, though it just may take a little patience, he said.

“Everyone finds a place to park one way or the other,” Dyer said.