‘In the name of progress’ Bangor racino project takes another step forward; Holiday Inn on Main Street closes

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BANGOR – The staff and patrons of the Holiday Inn-Civic Center marked the end of an era Tuesday when the 31-year-old hotel closed its doors forever.

The hotel is one of two that Penn National Gaming Inc., a Pennsylvania-based gaming and racing company, has been working to acquire as part of its effort to build a $90 million gaming complex across Main Street from Bass Park.

The other hotel, the former Main Street Inn, was razed in June.

“It’s a sad day, but it’s all in the name of progress, I think,” General Manager Brett Stacey said Tuesday afternoon in an interview at the hotel, where chambermaids were stripping linens from the beds and a few key managers who are being retained for the next few weeks were attending to matters related to the closing.

The Holiday Inn has been a home away from home for generations of businesspeople, basketball tournament fans and other visitors. With its Irish-style restaurant called Killarney’s, the inn was a popular venue for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.

Employees had a chance to say goodbye Monday night at a staff function in Fitzgerald’s Lounge on the inn’s second floor, Stacey said. The last guests at the Holiday Inn-Civic Center checked out by noon.

The hotel perhaps was best known for its popular nightspot, The Bounty Taverne, which first operated as a venue for local rock bands to showcase their talents.

With the advent of disco, the Bounty moved to a DJ format. The club closed a few years ago after a brief stint as a “chem-free” dance venue for the under 21 crowd.

“It’s a very emotional day here,” Stacey said. “We have people who have been with us for a long time.

“I had my first legal drink here,” said Stacey, who has been managing the Holiday Inn on Main Street since 1994 and who took the helm of the one on the Odlin Road a year later.

It was here that he and his wife, Julie, held their wedding reception, he said.

On Tuesday, Stacey lauded the hotel staff’s loyalty, despite the fact that the inn’s imminent closure has been public knowledge since January 2005.

“We did not have one employee say, ‘I’m done,'” he said. “That’s one of the things I was really proud of, the work ethic.”

At the time of its closing, the inn employed about 85 full- and part-time employees.

“We are fortunate enough to be able to place some of them at our other hotels, and we’ve been working with the [Bangor] Career Center” to help others find new jobs.

Though he declined to comment on any severance arrangements, Stacey did say that “to me, in typical Maine fashion, [current owner Kevin Mahaney] has taken good care of his people.”

Penn National’s permanent racino will replace its temporary facility, Hollywood Slots in Bangor, which opened in November in the former Miller’s Restaurant on Main Street.

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

The Bangor branch of Securitas Security Services USA has been tapped to keep an eye on the property, Field Services Manager Dana Cunningham said Tuesday.

Hollywood Slots spokeswoman Amy Kenney said last week that the real estate closing on the Holiday Inn property is slated to occur before the end of this year. Demolition is planned for early next year with construction of the new complex set to start in the spring. If all goes to plan, the new complex will open in mid-2008.

It will house, among other things, a 116,000-square-foot gaming facility featuring up to 1,500 slots, a 1,500-space four-story parking garage, and restaurant and retail space.

Dependent upon the racino’s take, a seven-story hotel, comparable to a Marriott Courtyard, will be added, Penn National representatives noted in a September briefing for city of Bangor officials.

Penn’s off-track betting operation, now operated out of the grandstand at city-owned Bangor Raceway, also would be housed in the new facility.

Though Penn National officials have said they would prefer not to have to get into the hotel business, it is a requirement of the development pact Penn National negotiated with the city.

The gambling operation has to hit the $120 million mark in annual adjusted gross revenues to trigger the addition of the hotel, corporate spokesman Eric Schippers said, adding that there is no way to predict when that might occur. To that end, a firm cost figure has yet to be developed.

The Holiday Inn-Civic Center originally opened in February 1974 as a Sheraton Inn by its original owners, Bangor area businessmen Thomas Walsh and Forrest Grant. It became a Holiday Inn in early 1975, when Bangor businessman and philanthropist Larry Mahaney acquired an interest.

Mahaney, an Easton native who also owned the Holiday Inn on the Odlin Road, died in February at age 76 in West Palm Beach, Fla., after suffering a stroke.

His son Kevin Mahaney now is president and chief executive officer of The Olympia Cos., based in Portland. A subsidiary, Olympia Hotel Management, operates 12 independent hotel and spa properties in Maine, Virginia and New Hampshire, according to its corporate Web site.

Built at a cost of $750,000, the Holiday Inn is valued at nearly $1.25 million by the city’s tax assessor.

Over the years, the inn was expanded from its original 60 guestrooms to 121, Stacey said.