Bangor day care center receives tentative OK

BANGOR – A proposal to create a daycare center in one of the buildings formerly used by the University of Maine System’s chancellor and his staff received a tentative green light this week from city councilors.

During a regular meeting on Monday night, city councilors unanimously voted to grant Liz and Paul Leonard tentative developer status, or exclusive negotiating rights, through June 26 for the so-called trustees building, a one-story wood-frame building with 10,462 square feet.

Under the deal approved by the council, the Leonards would pay $475,000 for the trustees building and up to 1.8 acres and receive no financial assistance from the city. The Leonards would be required to invest at least $426,000 in building improvements, begin work by July 1 and complete it by Dec. 31.

Another condition that the city imposed, should the deal go through, is that priority for day care center spots would go first to those employed in the city’s Maine Business Enterprise Park and Bangor International Airport Commercial Industrial Park, then to Bangor residents or those employed in the city and then to all others.

The trustees building is one of three buildings that the city acquired through a property swap with the university system. The buildings sit on about 5 acres with frontage on Maine Avenue.

Still up for grabs at 107 Maine Ave. are Auburn Hall – a two-story brick building with 14,548 square feet of space – and Building 26, a long, narrow brick building most recently used for cold storage with 4,746 square feet of space.

The proposal submitted by the Leonards calls for the development of a children’s learning center.

In their proposal, the couple noted that they have reached an agreement with Children’s Creative Learning Center, a California-based child care provider that owns or operates 19 child care centers on the West Coast.

The center, they said, would create 25 jobs, at least 18 full-time positions with benefits and seven part-time positions for younger workers. It would be the first certified facility of its kind in the city, Liz Leonard said during a meeting earlier this year with city councilors.