New owners of the Bangor Mall look to mix up the offerings, starting with fresh retail and, eventually, a conversion of some of the space to multifamily housing.
Get Instant Access to This Article
Subscribe to Mainebiz and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.
- Critical Maine business news updated daily.
- Immediate access to all subscriber-only content on our website.
- Bi-weekly print or digital editions of our award-winning publication.
- Special bonus issues like the Mainebiz Book of Lists.
- Exclusive ticket prize draws for our in-person events.
Click here to purchase a paywall bypass link for this article
The Bangor Mall is in a high-profile location that has nonetheless had a hard time staying with the times.
Over the years, the mall has contended with a lineup of traditional anchor stores that had gotten stale as well as changes in consumer shopping habits. Vacancies have been an issue in recent years.
That looks to change soon, as Deputy Editor Renee Cordes writes in our cover story.
New owners look to mix up the offerings, starting with fresh retail and, eventually, a conversion of some of the space to multifamily housing.
As Renee writes, why not demolish the 48-year-old structure and build something new from scratch?
“You would be tearing down a perfectly good building,” says Michael Cole, a Bangor-based real estate broker who’s leading a local group formed to buy and repurpose the Bangor Mall into a mixed-use hub anchored by retail and services.
Up the road, in Orono, two new buildings look to add to the University of Maine’s standing as a research institution.
As Staff Writer Tina Fischer reports, UMaine will unveil the Green Engineering and Materials, or GEM, building this fall to boost innovation in manufacturing. Not far away on campus, the university will also open the Sustainable Aquaculture Workforce Innovation Center to address research and training for a growing segment of the economy. The two buildings represent an investment of more than $90 million.
Back in Bangor, Senior Writer Laurie Schreiber has a roundup of new investments. As Laurie writes, “With a daytime population of around 120,000, Bangor functions as a hub with good city services, a rapidly expanding airport that has a Foreign Trade Zone, multiple exits on I-95, a working downtown, historic neighborhoods and events, arts and culture options.”
