Bangor housing for work force nearly complete

BANGOR – Construction is winding down on a 28-unit apartment complex aimed at housing the city’s work force, particularly those employed in the service sector, where jobs often pay less than a living wage.

Work began late last year on the complex, called Northside Family Housing, according to Stephen Mooers, chief executive officer of Penquis Development Inc., the project’s developer.

Slated to open in January, the $4 million complex is located on Griffin Road, near the intersection with Union Street and adjacent to the Airport Mall.

“We’ve had a high degree of interest in the units,” Mooers said Wednesday. “We’ve got a waiting list already” for the units, which will be rented out on a first-come, first-served basis.

In the case of Northside, however, the interest in the project goes beyond the below-market rental costs.

Though the exterior walls are brown, the overall project actually is “green,” as in environmentally friendly.

Northside is the second housing complex in Maine to adhere to the Maine State Housing Authority’s green building standards, according to Bill Glover, MSHA’s manager of lending.

It’s also the second project to be subject to the housing agency’s new requirement that minorities be hired as on-the-job trainees for new construction projects, according to Maureen Murray, a consultant who coordinates the minority hiring program for MSHA.

Maine’s first project in both respects was Walker Terrace, which opened in Portland late last year, Glover and Murray said.

In order to qualify under the green building standards, the complex must be designed and built with energy efficiency in mind. That applies to virtually every aspect of the project, from choices in building materials and landscaping plants to plumbing, heating and electrical systems, appliances and fixtures.

With regard to minority hiring, the work crew employed by general contractor Associated Builders of Ellsworth includes three women and one black male, who are participating in MSHA’s 700-hour on-the-job training program, Murray said. She said the MSHA program was modeled after a similar program that the Maine Department of Transportation established two decades ago, Murray said.

“There’s a real crying need in the construction industry for new workers. It’s an opportunity for contractors to expand their employee bases,” Murray said, adding that the average construction worker in Maine is 47 years old.

MSHA’s minority training program also meshes with federal minority employment targets for the construction industry.

The targets, based on population demographics, call for having a work force composed of at least 6.9 percent women and at least .05 percent minority male, Murray said.

Though the facility isn’t expected to be ready for occupancy until January, there already is a waiting list for Northside’s two- and three-bedroom units, Mooers said.

To be eligible for a unit, renters must earn less than 60 percent of the median income for Greater Bangor, Mooers said. The maximum income for an eligible family of four, for instance, is about $31,000, he said.

Rent for a three-bedroom unit – the size that Mooers says now is in highest demand – will be about $630 a month.

That is well below the local market price, which now ranges from $900 to $1,100 a month for an apartment with similar amenities in a good neighborhood, Mooers said.

Besides heat and hot water, the units will come with free high-speed Internet access for tenants, Mooers said, adding that this is a first for an affordable housing complex in Bangor.

The idea, he said, is to help families help themselves by providing a means for such self-improvement activities as job searches and homework, to name a few.