Bangor revisits possible sites for new arena

BANGOR – Given the sweeping changes that have occurred in the five years that have passed since the city commissioned a site location study for a new arena to replace the Bangor Auditorium, city officials agreed it is time to revisit the issue.

That work began Tuesday night, when city administrators and four of Bangor’s nine city councilors met in workshop mode with David Greusel of HOK Associates, the consultant who worked on the original 2002 study.

The effort will continue at noon today, when various individuals and groups with an interest in the arena meet with Greusel to let him know where they think it should go.

The city has been talking about a new arena to replace the more than 50-year-old Bangor Auditorium for years. In 2002, it tapped the Kansas City, Mo., architectural firm to develop preliminary designs for the arena and evaluate possible locations.

The initial study looked at nine viable building sites and projected a total cost of about $40 million.

Some of the sites no longer are available, however, and some space that was thought to be off-limits since has opened up.

The city also has since identified a revenue source to cover the cost of the project.

As it now stands, the city is socking away the revenues it is receiving as host of Hollywood Slots at Bangor, which opened in November 2005 in the former Miller’s Restaurant.

“We desperately need a new arena. The need is here, we have a stream of revenue, thanks to the racino, that wasn’t even a dream when we first did this,” Councilor Gerry Palmer said Tuesday, summing up the city’s position, at least on that aspect of the project.

When it came to where to build the new arena, however, two schools of thought emerged. Palmer would like to see the new facility located downtown, where it would boost businesses.

“I, for one, think that if we can have a downtown location, a lot of boats would rise,” he said. Building the arena downtown also would leave Bass Park free as a venue for such crowd generators as the Bangor State Fair, a major logging equipment exposition that comes to Bass Park every other year, and parking for the American Folk Festival, Palmer said.

Palmer also noted that adequate parking already exists downtown, both in the Pickering Square parking garage and along side streets there.

The three other councilors in attendance Tuesday, however, favored Bass Park, located across Main Street from the $131 million gaming and hotel complex Penn National Gaming Inc. is building.

“I guess I’m really more inclined to keep the auditorium somewhere on lower Main Street [at Bass Park] for a number of reasons,” Councilor Patricia Blanchette said, with traffic congestion chief among them.

Portland’s downtown civic center “is a nightmare” to access, she said. “In-city arenas have a tendency to overrun the area, in my opinion,” she said.

An arena and a gaming facility built across Main Street from each other would create a gateway into the city, Blanchette said.

Councilor Peter D’Errico wanted to know if the city could separate the functions of the facility, which could include space for large gatherings, such as concerts and sports events, and smaller gatherings, including conferences and conventions. He noted that the city’s newer civic center, which now houses the smaller gatherings, could continue to do so.

“To tie them together, I don’t think is necessary,” he said.

HOK’s plan called for a three-level, 220,000-square-foot facility made up of a 7,500-seat arena and adjacent convention center.

Councilor Geoffrey Gratwick also was leaning toward Bass Park because of its proximity to Interstate 395, which would help keep downtown from getting flooded with traffic.

To him, the more important question was, “What can the community support?” Bangor taxpayers, he noted, “already support Bass Park to the tune of half a million dollars a year.”