BANGOR – The opening of the new headquarters for the Bangor Police Department will be held on Thursday, Dec. 28, at 240 Main St.

The schedule for Thursday is: 1 p.m. ribbon cutting ceremony, 3-7 p.m. open house with public tours.

At 1:30 p.m. Friday, police operations will be officially transferred to the new station.

The public entrance to the new facility is on the Summer Street side of the building.

If the police lot is full, there should be plenty of parking in the city lot on Summer Street near Railroad Street.

Construction of the 42,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility came after more than a decade of discussion and planning. Nickerson & O’Day contracting built the new structure, which was designed by WBRC Architects-Engineers.

The facility includes a 75-seat training room, interview rooms and space for the Bangor Police Museum. Other station components include a special meeting room, shared by the accident reconstruction and hostage negotiation teams, a three-computer station for the computer crimes unit, and an indoor firing range.

The Court Street police station had served the community since the 1930s. At one time it was home to Bangor Public Works.