Downtown firms weigh effect of UMS relocation

BANGOR – Anthony Francis, owner of the Lunch Box on Main Street, was busy Thursday filling an order for 14 sub sandwiches for a group of University of Maine System staff members who had ordered out for lunch.

It was the second such order placed at his Main Street shop in the past week, the 25-year-old entrepreneur said.

Francis said he perhaps has been more proactive than most businesses when it comes to courting UMS business.

“I went over and introduced myself and I put a big menu board in their kitchen area,” Francis said.

Early indications are that the system’s move last month into the former W.T. Grant building will bring a boost for downtown businesses. Though the 120 system employees are still settling in, some downtown businesses are beginning to see new traffic.

The relocation, which was done in waves, began early last month and took several weeks.

UMS spokesman John Diamond said Thursday that many staff members, including himself, had yet to find time to unpack some of the boxes they hauled over from their old offices on Maine Avenue.

Among the first to feel the change have been the downtown’s restaurants and coffee shops.

After all, everybody’s got to eat.

But owners of retail stores say that the impact will be slower to reach them.

To help familiarize staff with the downtown’s offerings, the university put together packets of information that included menus and pamphlets and discount coupons, to name a few, Diamond said. Some employees received the packets last Friday, and the rest on Monday.

“It’s really becoming a much more vibrant downtown,” Diamond said. “One of the nice things is that even some of the people who already were familiar with downtown are discovering new things.”

Over at the Friars Bakehouse, across Central Street from the Grant building, Brother Kenneth said the effect so far has been mixed.

“Our morning business has gone down, but our lunchtime business is through the roof,” he said.

Brother Kenneth said that Chancellor Joseph Westphal comes in most mornings for coffee and a muffin and that Westphal has offered the Episcopal brothers a private tour of the system’s new digs.

They missed last month’s ribbon cutting because they were in Greece and Rome, where they got to shake hands with Pope Benedict XVI.

Reed Gagnon, owner of Sweets Market at the corner of Main and Broad streets, was busy making pizzas and couldn’t shake hands because his were all oily.

Gagnon said he has noticed a few new customers, but it isn’t clear yet if they are connected with the chancellor’s office staff. His contribution to the downtown information packet was coupons for five free cups of coffee.

“I haven’t seen one come back yet,” he said.

Retailers still are waiting to see what the addition to the downtown’s work force will bring.

“It’s a time of the year that’s usually slow,” Rick Schweikert, owner of the Grasshopper Shop, said. “And they are still discovering downtown.

“Having the extra people, that helps us, but it’s hard to know [what the impact has been so far],” partly because its difficult to tell which of the new faces he’s seen in recent weeks belong to system employees.

“It’s not like they have signs on them,” he said. “Hopefully, we can entice them in.”

Brad Ryder, owner of Epic Sports in the Grant building, also said it was too early to tell how much of an increase his store would see.

“I think it’s just a little premature,” he said. “I think it will come in time. I’m pretty confident about that.”