Panel recoils after reviewing waterfront condo plan

BANGOR – Perhaps color renderings would have helped.

City councilors weren’t very enthused Wednesday about cost-cutting measures made to keep Belvedere on the Riverpark, an upscale condominium complex proposed for Bangor Waterfront, within budget.

They made their opinions clear to the developer after examining a series of black-and-white drawings that compared what the building originally was going to look like to how it would look after changes were made to cut costs.

“That building up there looks like it’s a box,” Councilor Susan Hawes said after looking at the sketches.

“Hopefully, that will look better when it is in color,” Hawes said. She added that her reaction might lie in her difficulty visualizing what the building will look like based on black-and-white drawings. However, she said the before and after drawings didn’t look similar at all.

Councilor Gerry Palmer agreed, saying, “This has been very much dumbed down.” As he saw it, the architecture was somewhat generic, and the building could be set anywhere.

If architecture is frozen music, as German philosopher Friedrich von Schelling once said, “This one is not singing to me,” Palmer said.

“This is very, very tame,” Palmer said, later adding, “I think it’s important that it be a ‘ta-da!’ facility.”

“I’m sure that when we show you the color renderings, you’ll be very happy with it,” developer Brian Ames of Belvedere Associates LLC said.

The $12 million project, proposed for a city-owned parcel at the corner of Railroad and Summer streets, represents the first major private investment for the city’s waterfront redevelopment area since the Sea Dog restaurant.

As such, it has to set the tone for other buildings that will follow. That is why councilors are concerning themselves with Belvedere’s appearance.

During his meeting with the City Council’s business and economic development committee, chaired by Councilor Richard Greene, Ames outlined some of the changes he and business partner Mo Fer had to make to keep costs reasonable.

The changes include reducing the number of units from 32 to 28 and ceiling heights from 9 to 8 feet. In addition, some of the architectural features proposed for the roof have been scrapped and some of the colors for exterior finishes changed.

Though an earlier version of the project had earned site plan and final plan approval from the city, compliance with Maine’s condominium laws and with the city’s development agreement have proved tricky and time-consuming. City deadlines elapsed, and the developer had to go back to the drawing board.

In addition, negotiations about land needed to meet parking requirements have taken longer than expected.

On top of that, the cost for construction materials has risen sharply because of the post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding effort now under way in the South.

The project since has regained preliminary approval from the committee last month and is slated to return later this month for final approval. If all goes as planned, it will move to the planning board next month.

“But it still has many of the elements we’ve shown you and intend to keep,” Ames said.

Without taking the cost-cutting steps, Ames said, the cost for an average unit would have been in the $500,000 range.

“That type of project, although beautiful and gorgeous, will not work in Bangor,” Ames said. “There aren’t enough people to buy those. There aren’t. This is the best that we can afford.”