🔒Small donations and a nonpartisan atmosphere rally Bangor’s business community behind a new arena

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At the groundbreaking ceremony for Bangor's new arena and convention center, a small crowd huddled under a white tent a few hundred yards away from the booted feet of the Paul Bunyan statue. As the morning's weather intensified from a light mist to a steady rain, city officials, local business types, reporters and other attendees politely positioned for prime spots under the tent, while others resigned themselves to the relative cover of a nearby tree.

As it came time for the ceremonial shovel-in-dirt photo op, the sky opened up into a downpour, drenching the figureheads of Bangor's biggest economic development project in decades as they gamely posed with 11 golden shovels. Peter Vigue of construction firm Cianbro, tapped to build the $65 million facility, smiled, unruffled, in his suit and hardhat. City Councilor Geoff Gratwick, in a bowtie and rain-dappled round-framed glasses, dug his spade into a neat strip of previously tilled earth, smiling for the cameras. Behind the group rose the V-shaped roof of the city's existing auditorium, no doubt springing a few leaks.

More than 57 years earlier, a previous generation of city officials broke ground — with one of the same ceremonial shovels, no less — in Bass Park on the aging facility now due for demolition. Once a source of regional pride, the building has become known for its limitations and, indeed, leaky roof. In 2002, a Kansas City consultant visiting the city dubbed it the "second-worst facility he'd ever seen," adding fuel to a debate about the facility's future that has persisted for years.

"The interest in an arena and convention center in Bangor has been going on for more than a decade," says Elizabeth Sutherland, of Sutherland Weston, a Bangor marketing and communications firm. But while Portland weighs competing proposals for a new event center, a number of factors coalesced in the Queen City to make its project a reality: a dedicated funding stream from Hollywood Slots, located just across Main Street from the auditorium site; no argument about where the facility should be located; and overwhelming support from Bangor's business community. On a Wednesday in early May, 5,470 city voters braved another downpour to approve the project by a 3-to-1 margin.

Much of the success came down to a strategy of enlisting local business support, through a campaign that favored smaller donations from a wide range of businesses over large contributions from banks, utilities and the other usual deep-pocketed players (though those were gratefully accepted). And while companies often resist displaying campaign posters on their lawns and windows for fear of alienating customers, "There was more support for this project than I've seen in 15 years in the Bangor business community," says Sutherland, who worked on the Arena Yes campaign. "This is the largest effort this community has ever made toward economic development opportunities for itself."

Raising support

Commercial real estate broker Carol Epstein hosted several informational luncheons about Bangor's arena effort at her firm's multi-tenant office buildings. She also went door-to-door in her neighborhood leafleting in support of the project, and her company donated a couple thousand dollars to the Arena Yes campaign. Yet, "We would never do anything political as a business," she says.

How did her door-knocking coexist with her company's apolitical stance? "What was really unique about this project is it wasn't viewed as political in any way, so people were comfortable supporting it as a business," she says. Rather than a partisan issue up for a vote, the project was seen as the region's path to a more prosperous future, Epstein says. "That was, to me, the most significant thing. It was about economic development. It was about us having a vibrant community that was looking toward the future."

Because businesses were asked to contribute a palatable $1,000 and the support was so widespread, the funding came together despite tough times for many, Epstein says. "We would have given more," she says of her company, Epstein Commercial Real Estate. "We weren't asked to. They asked so many people, the sense of being part of it was incredibly strong." She recalls a dry cleaning shop located just down the Penobscot River from her office pitching in. "They took down their sign for 'Laundry dry and fold for x dollars' and put up an arena sign," Epstein says.

The Arena Yes campaign first approached businesses to help pay for a $40,000 economic impact study, which projects more than $26 million in added sales at Penobscot County businesses and 400 jobs paying nearly $10 million in wages annually as a result of the new arena. Then another $40,000 paid for campaign materials. In all, 50 to 60 donors brought $85,000 to the table, says Miles Theeman, president and CEO of Affiliated Health Care Systems and a public face of the campaign. "It was the easiest $85,000 I've ever raised," he says. "We could count on one hand the businesses that weren't able to provide us funds, but everyone said, 'How else can I help?'"

What sealed support for many was that no new taxes would be needed to fund the project, he says. The city will borrow about $60 million over 30 years, with a $7 million down payment, to build the arena and convention center, amounting to annual debt service just shy of $4 million. Proceeds from Hollywood Slots, which has funneled $10.5 million to the city since opening in 2005, as well as a downtown TIF fund, are expected to cover all of the costs. "I would bet the city of Bangor is the envy of cities across the country that would love to build a facility like this but don't have the revenue," Theeman says.

Momentum for the project, after all these years, originated with the local business community, according to Mark Woodward, former executive editor of the Bangor Daily News, who also led the Arena Yes campaign. That was despite a national atmosphere of economic recession, weak faith in political leadership and aversion to government debt, says Woodward. "If you were to pick a time to promote a project like this, it would not have been the time," Woodward says. "It was the worst of times." Still, business owners saw the facility's limits, including its relatively small size, inconvenient loading dock configuration and lack of a commercial kitchen.

Now that voters have overwhelmingly approved the project, Arena Yes will continue its work, bringing business investment to the new facility, which is expected to cost upwards of $500,000 to operate annually. Naming rights, sponsorships, advertising, skyboxes and other opportunities are suddenly available for the first time, Woodward says. The city is now in talks with Global Spectrum, a Philadelphia subsidiary of Comcast that manages several similar facilities in New England and nearly 100 nationwide, to handle day-to-day operations of the arena.

Meanwhile, Cianbro construction workers are building the facility in the shadow of its predecessor, which will remain open as new walls go up, in some cases just five feet away. "To look at the old auditorium crumbling before your eyes was hard, because it has been important to the regional community," says Epstein. "People could feel that loss." But now, as the new arena takes shape, "It's exciting to be able to be part of something you think is going to have an impact in the future," she says.

Jackie Farwell, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at jfarwell@mainebiz.biz.