Building Business: North to south, construction drumbeat continues amid winter

RENDERING / Artifex Architects & Engineers Benchmark Construction is the general contractor for the $3.45 million Bangor Area Transit Center in downtown Bangor.

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By Peter Van Allen

On Bangor’s Pickering Square, Benchmark Construction is doing site work for the Bangor Area Transit Center, a $3.45 million site that will allow commuters to get out of the cold.

The 2,200–square-foot, single story building will include an indoor waiting area, administrative space, public bathrooms, a bus drivers’ room and security office. The exterior of the building includes covered waiting areas, outdoor seating, lighting and accessible passenger loading areas.

Benchmark Construction, which is based in Westbrook, will work from plans drawn up by Bangor-based Artifex Architects & Engineers.

Funding was provided through grants from the Federal Transit Administration and the Maine Department of Transportation with the city of Bangor and local Community Connector partners providing a 20% match. Prior to this, riders on the Community Connector bus service have used one of the service’s idle buses as a wintertime warming area. Completion is expected by December 2022.

Other projects from around Maine

On Riverside Street in Westbrook, Atlantic Federal Credit Union’s new branch office is now in the site-work phase. The contractor is La Macchia Group, a Milwaukee-based design-build firm that specializes in bank and credit union branches. On its website, it has dozens of examples of credit union branches, with a concentration in Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois but also examples on East and West coasts. The company was founded in 2002 and is led by Ralph and Mary Lou La Macchia. Atlantic FCU says the branch will open this year, with the exact date to be determined.

In Madison, GO Lab Inc. held a ceremonial groundbreaking at its TimberHP manufacturing facility in Madison. Cianbro is the project manager. The groundbreaking was attended by TimberHP co-founders Matt O’Malia and Josh Henry, as well as Gov. Janet Mills, Madison Town Manager Tim Curtis and Cianbro representatives. TimberHP, which plans to make wood products-based insulation, plans to retrofit the defunct Madison mill.

In Portland, Wessex Woods, an affordable senior housing complex developed by Avesta Housing, is now open. It has 34 affordable units and six at market rate. The contractor was Freeport-based Zachau Construction, based on design by Portland-based CWS Architects. Bangor Savings Bank provided both the construction and permanent loans. Other financing came from low-income housing tax credits (Boston Financial), an affordable housing TIF and Housing Trust Fund (city of Portland), an Affordable Housing Program grant (through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston) and a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (through Maine State Housing Authority).

In Topsham, Mahoney Design & Build Inc. is overseeing new construction for a storage facility on Topsham Fair Mall Road.