Temporary slots parking slated for Main Street site

BANGOR – While that large hole being dug on Main Street might look a little like Bangor’s version of Boston’s Big Dig, it actually is part of the groundwork that must be done in anticipation of Penn National Gaming Inc.’s permanent racino.

The permanent Hollywood Slots at Bangor, which will be built across Main Street from Bass Park, will replace the temporary slots facility of the same name that opened in November at the former Miller’s Restaurant on Main Street.

According to Amy Kenney, spokeswoman for Hollywood Slots at Bangor, workers from Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield are excavating the site where the Main Street Inn stood before it was torn down earlier this month.

A multilevel garage eventually will be built on the site, while a temporary parking lot will provide overflow parking for the current racino facility.

“Well, there are three things,” Kenney said on Wednesday when asked why all the digging was going on.

An old 15,000-gallon septic tank and portions of the former motel’s concrete foundation needed to be removed, Kenney said.

In addition, unsuitable soils – namely mud and silt – also need to be dug out so that the new racino garage can be built on a firm footing.

Construction of the new facility will begin in 2007 or 2008, depending on the outcome of talks with the last remaining leaseholder.

Penn National’s permanent gambling complex, which will house up to 1,500 slot machines, is proposed for the so-called Riverside Block, which encompasses the land between Lincoln and Dutton streets from Main Street to the railroad tracks.

The permanent racino, which will replace the temporary slots parlor, will include a parking garage, restaurant and retail space as well as the off-track betting operation now located at Bass Park, home of city-owned Bangor Raceway.

The Main Street Inn and the nearby Holiday Inn-Civic Center, which will remain open until late this year, were among the few commercially zoned properties large enough to accommodate Penn’s proposed 150,000-square-foot permanent facility and attached multilevel parking garage within the 2,000- foot radius of Bangor Raceway required by state law.

Hollywood Slots officials said this month that the parking structure will be located at the in-town end of the site, while the racino will be built on the end closer to Hampden, roughly where the Holiday Inn now stands.