BANGOR – The Holiday Inn-Civic Center on Main Street apparently is closing at the end of the month as part of plans to construct a permanent $90 million gambling complex at the site, even though company officials are denying the news.

When calling to inquire about a reservation, the Bangor Daily News was told that the hotel was booked full on Halloween, Oct. 31, but would be closed the following day.

“We are closing officially on the 31st,” a Holiday Inn-Civic Center receptionist said Friday.

Attempts to book a room on the Holiday Inn Web site for the Main Street site Oct. 31 and afterward also were unsuccessful.

General Manager Brett Stacy said Friday that he couldn’t comment on when the hotel was closing.

“We’re open for business as usual,” he said. “We’re expecting to be open for a few more months.”

Asked about the inability to book rooms via the Web at the Main Street hotel after Oct. 30, Stacy said, “That may be true” and then said the Web site isn’t always up to date.

Asked if employees have been told that the hotel would close at the end of the month, Stacy said, “No comment.”

Penn National Gaming Inc., based in Wyomissing, Penn., is gearing up to build a 116,000-square-foot gaming facility that will house up to 1,500 slots at the Holiday Inn and Main Street Inn sites, which also includes space for a four-story parking garage and seven-story hotel.

The Main Street Inn was demolished and removed in June and now is used as overflow parking for Hollywood Slots at Bangor, Penn National’s racino, which has 475 slot machines and has operated at a temporary facility at the former Miller’s Restaurant site on Main Street for close to a year. The facility opened in November 2005.

The properties, across the street from Bass Park and Bangor Raceway, are among the few commercially zoned properties large enough to accommodate Penn’s project and are within the 2,000-foot radius of Bangor Raceway allowed by state law.

Penn National has been negotiating for months with Remax Advantage Realty Group, one of the last remaining lease holders on the Main Street site.

Construction on the new complex is slated to begin next year, according to Amy Kenney, marketing manager for Hollywood Slots.

“Agreements have been reached with Remax, and we will be closing on sale of the Holiday Inn by the end of 2006,” she said Friday. “This will allow us to begin our demolition of the Holiday Inn by the start of 2007.”

The Holiday Inn on Main Street and the one on the Odlin Road are owned by Mahaney Properties, which is owned by Kevin Mahaney, son of the late Bangor businessman Larry Mahaney. Attempts to reach Kevin Mahaney for comment Friday were unsuccessful.

Construction of the massive complex, designed with a cream and tan exterior and a two-story, semicircular glass tower entrance, is expected to begin early in the spring of 2007, Kenney added.

“We should be on schedule to open to the public in mid-2008,” she said.