Racino wants bigger employee parking lot

BANGOR – When Hollywood Slots Hotel and Raceway opens this summer, it will need an expanded parking area to accommodate its expanded work force.

The gaming and hotel complex will employ about 500 people, up sharply from the 130 who work at its interim facility.

Though the new complex will include a 1,500-vehicle parking garage, those spaces will be reserved for customers, company officials have said.

The plan is to have employees park their vehicles across Main Street at Bass Park, where the company now has an overflow parking lot behind the Irving gasoline station and convenience store.

But the lot built last summer isn’t big enough to meet Hollywood Slots’ future needs so the company is looking to expand it.

The company has asked to lease some additional land from the city immediately behind the lot it now leases from the city, and so far, city councilors are willing.

But there is one catch: All bets are off if the land ultimately is needed for the arena the city is looking to build in the next few years to replace the aging Bangor Auditorium. The city plans to finance the new arena, projected to cost $90 million to $100 million, with the revenue it is receiving as host city for the slots operation, which remains the only one in the state that has the necessary state and local approval.

As it stands, Bass Park is the hands-down favorite location for the new arena, though exactly where remains to be determined.

Should the leased land be needed for the arena, the city would take the land back and help the slots operator come up with an alternative parking plan, according to the terms of a proposed lease arrangement that City Manager Edward Barrett and City Solicitor Norman Heitmann outlined Wednesday night during a meeting of the City Council’s business and economic development committee.

During that meeting, councilors serving on the committee voted to send a lease proposal to the full council for consideration during its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Given the amount of time it is expected to take to get through the arena planning and design process, Hollywood Slots likely will have as long as one or two years notice, which should give it ample time to work out another parking arrangement, Heitmann said.