EMMC group unveils parking plan, saves historic structures

BANGOR – After four work sessions spanning six months, members of a neighborhood work group tapped by Eastern Maine Medical Center to find a way to ease the hospital’s parking crunch without razing two historic structures has come up with a plan that accomplishes both ends.

The plan, unveiled Tuesday night, calls for construction of a 41/2-level parking garage at an estimated cost of $16 million.

EMMC President and CEO Deborah Carey Johnson presided over what likely was the work group’s last meeting, held in a conference room at the hospital’s State Street campus.

The work, slated to begin this summer, will start with utility and groundwork. Construction of the garage will start in late fall and is expected to wrap up next spring, according to Joel Farley, the hospital’s facilities administrator and head engineer.

The new parking structure is designed to accommodate 809 vehicles. It will be built alongside the hospital’s existing parking garage, on what now is a surface lot for 160 vehicles at the corner of State and Hancock streets, Farley said.

The hospital convened the work group late last year, after people in the community rallied to rescue the Wing Estate, located at 412 State St., and the Robinson House, located at 424 State St., both of which were owned by EMMC at the time.

EMMC had been contemplating tearing the two buildings down to make space for parking and other needs.

The Wing Estate is one of a few Gothic Revival-style houses remaining in the city and is nearly two centuries old, noted Michael Pullen, an architect with the Bangor firm WBRC who served on the work group.

The Robinson House dates to the 1930s and sits on the property of the former Howard House, which was built in 1781 and is believed to have been the first frame house in Bangor.

The hospital since has found a buyer for that property. James Butler is restoring the house, which will live on as a single-family residence.

The hospital still is weighing the merits of a range of options for the Wing Estate, which most recently housed offices and a day care facility.

“I consider this to be a real success story in historic preservation,” said work group member Robert Kelly, whose company, House Revivers, is well-known in the community for rescuing buildings some deemed beyond redemption. All too often, he said, historically and culturally important structures like the two that were saved are torn down before anyone notices.

In this case, he said, “the public was on the ball,” serving in a watchdog role. “They certainly barked loud on this one.”

He applauded EMMC for its responsiveness to the community’s desire to see the buildings saved.

During the meeting, Farley said that EMMC’s parking crisis is very real.

As is stands, the hospital has 2,061 parking spaces on its State Street campus – about 535 fewer spaces than it needs for its patients, visitors and staff, Farley said.

As a result, about 300 employees must park at offsite locations, namely the Pickering Square parking garage and EMMC’s overflow lot on Sylvan Road. Those workers then have to ride shuttle buses back and forth, at a yearly cost of about $490,000.

Though work to move outpatient and administrative functions off campus, as well as car pooling and a bike program, have helped a bit, plans to add a second eight-story medical tower there are expected to increase EMMC’s parking pressure, Farley said.

If no action is taken, EMMC’s parking shortfall will grow to 617 spots by 2013.

Once the new garage is ready, the hospital will see a net gain of 649 parking spaces.

Cianbro Corp. of Pittsfield, which just completed the $132 million Hollywood Slots Hotel and Raceway complex, will build the garage. The Hollywood Slots project includes a 1,500-spot parking garage, deemed the largest in Maine.

dgagnon@bangordailynews.net

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