Health care nonprofit unveils seminary redevelopment plan

BANGOR – An ambitious plan to redevelop the former Bangor Theological Seminary campus was unveiled Thursday during a meeting of the city’s historic preservation commission.

The 9.25-acre campus, which was donated to the Bangor Theological Seminary in 1819, consists of three academic buildings and six residences, including the former home of Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln’s first vice president. Several of the buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It had been the seminary’s home for 186 years when it was sold last August to Seminary Redevelopment LLC, a partnership consisting of businessmen Paul Cook of Bangor and Kenneth Ray of Portland. The purchase price was $1.65 million.

In recent months, the campus, located near a junction of Hammond and Union streets, has housed a private community day care, a caterer, a civic group and a church.

Now, however, Penobscot Community Health Care is working toward acquiring all of the land and buildings and developing the property into what it is calling a “model community service center.”

PCHC is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to “provide access, regardless of ability to pay, for all people of the Greater Bangor region to quality community health care services and to promote access for all in Maine.”

If all goes according to plan, the property ultimately will provide space for health care and social service providers, apartments for low-income seniors and medical students, a depository for rare books, and workspace for students studying culinary arts and hospitality, among other things, the Rev. Robert Carlson, president of PCHC, told commission members.

The proposed Joshua Chamberlain Campus for Community Services would be born out of a group effort led by PCHS, Carlson said during Thursday’s meeting.

He said the plan was to name the complex after Chamberlain because the local Civil War hero was a seminary graduate who exemplified community service and learning through his service as Maine’s 32nd governor, as a professor and president of Bowdoin College, and in numerous other business and civic roles.

The PCHC board authorized a purchase and sale agreement in January, but the actual purchase price is still being negotiated, he said.

“The potential is exciting,” Carlson said. “If we can make this happen, it’ll be great for the community.”

Carlson said PCHS originally intended to pursue buying four core buildings and using some of the space to consolidate administrative and other nonclinical functions, freeing up relatively expensive space at its Union Street Campus for current clinical uses as well as for a proposed expansion of its dental and oral surgery services.

He said the board, however, eventually decided that it made more sense to redevelop the seminary campus as a whole with the help of a variety of nonprofit partners.

Though those partnerships are still being firmed up, so far the list of partners is expected to include:

. Community Housing of Maine, which hopes to convert Maine Hall, a four-story former dormitory, into a housing complex for low-income seniors.

. The Bangor Public Library, which would lease portions of the Moulton Library building as a depository for final copies and special editions of books and periodicals.

. Husson College, which is interested in using space in Wellman Commons for a culinary arts and hospitality program.

. The University of New England, which is eyeing a six-unit apartment building known as the “Old Commons” as a possible residence for medical students doing residencies or internships in the area.

With regard to the Hannibal Hamlin House, Carlson said two local nonprofits have expressed interest in moving in.

Though details are still being worked out, retiring Bangor Theological Seminary President William Imes said Friday he liked what he has heard about the project so far. He said that despite the seminary’s move to the Husson College campus a few years ago, many still considered the historic former campus its home.

“I think it’s a wonderful use for the property. I couldn’t be more pleased,” Imes said. “In general this makes enormous sense to me. I believe it will be very pleasing to the Bangor Theological Seminary community,” which includes faculty, students, alumni, friends and supporters.

“What these folks are proposing to do will feel very appropriate,” he said. “It was a place of ministry. This will be a place of service to the community.”

Though he, too, was awaiting more details, City Manager Edward Barrett was among those who thought PCHC’s redevelopment concept was “one worth taking a hard look at.”

“We would like to see it be reused and its historic status be recognized and maintained,” Barrett said Friday. As he understands PCHC’s plans, the proposed new uses for the campus “would integrate well with the neighborhood and would meet and address some of the needs in the city,” including social services, health care and senior housing.

Having one entity in charge of the redevelopment effort “would be preferable to a piecemeal approach,” Barrett said.