BANGOR – City councilors adopted a resolve this week formalizing their support for making downtown Bangor the site of a proposed arena and convention center that would replace the aging Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center at Bass Park. The exact location, however, has yet to be determined.

While discussing the matter during a meeting Monday night, councilors cited several advantages for locating the arena downtown, chief among them the thousands of people it could bring to that part of the city during nights and weekends when it is otherwise quiet.

“Three years ago, downtown was not even on the radar screen,” Councilor Michael Crowley said, lauding the councilors’ earlier decision to hire consultants to help the city study its options.

Preliminary designs for the arena facility, developed by HOK Associates, a Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm, call for the construction of a three-level, 220,000-square-foot facility comprising a 7,500-seat arena and adjacent convention center.

The release of the HOK draft report earlier this month was part of a $100,000 study of a new auditorium and civic center. The study began with a list of 20 sites, nine of them considered feasible. The nine sites included the Bass Park property as well as several waterfront and downtown sites, areas that few had considered contenders before.

Representatives of Minneapolis, Minn.-based Convention Sports and Leisure International presented a market study last October that concluded the city could support an arena of up to 7,500 seats, a 25 percent increase from the existing facility at Bass Park.

As proposed, the arena complex would provide more than triple the accommodations now available at Bass Park, Jonathan Daniels, the city’s business and economic development director, said last week.

While HOK estimated the total cost at more than $40 million, city officials say that the actual price likely will be lowered once they’ve had a chance to scour more detailed cost breakdowns for savings.

Councilor Gerry Palmer noted that the city could avoid costs associated with developing parking spaces by making use of what is already on hand. He said there currently are about 4,500 on-street and off-street parking spaces within a half-mile of the downtown district. Many of those parking spaces are vacant after downtown businesses and government facilities close for the night.

A staff commentary notes that downtown offers several potential advantages, including proximity to shops and restaurants and multiple access and egress points. If built downtown, the proposed arena-convention center would provide a new attraction that could spur additional development and redevelopment and support the city’s ongoing effort to increase the presence of arts, cultural and entertainment resources in that part of the community.

Also a factor in deciding where to locate the complex was the potential impact that plans for proposed improvements to the city’s harness-racing facility might have on available space at Bass Park.