MILLINOCKET – Potential buyers of the former JJ Newberry building on Penobscot Avenue have about six weeks to tell town officials what they would do with the former shopping store if they bought it.

Now that the town owns the almost 20,000-square-foot building – one of the largest commercial spaces on one of downtown’s main arteries – Town Manager Eugene Conlogue has begun shopping it to potential investors.

“If we get some interest in it, then the council will have to see what it wants to do with that interest,” Conlogue said Monday. “If we don’t, then the council will determine what it wants to do at that point.”

Town councilors agreed informally during a meeting last week to have Conlogue seek requests for proposals on the property until March 7, the Friday before the council’s March 13 meeting.

Conlogue requested that time period, saying it would be sufficient for gauging interest in the structure and receiving detailed proposals.

Conlogue outbid downtown restaurant owner Tom St. John and developer Robert Benjamin to secure the building from Bangor Savings Bank for about $42,000 during a foreclosure auction at the site earlier this month.

Residents and a council majority called the purchase a good move for Millinocket, saying it would lead to the elimination of what has been an empty eyesore downtown for more than 10 years.

The building would have been home to the Katahdin Cultural Center, but that effort ended when a limited liability company formed to rehabilitate the building failed to make payments and foreclosure proceedings began on March 16, 2007.

Councilors hope that investors, including those who unsuccessfully bid on the project, will come forward with definite plans and timelines for the building’s rebirth, Conlogue said.

If that doesn’t happen, the council has said it would consider razing the building to create a small park or parking lot.

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