ORONO, Maine — Shahram Pourmomtaz and Fariba Dayhim of Bangor aren’t quite sure yet what they’ll do with the former St. Mary Catholic Church if their attempt to purchase the property and buildings goes through, but they listened to suggestions and concerns Monday during a meeting of the Orono Town Council’s community development and operations committee.
The council also took a step forward on redevelopment of the site of the former Katahdin Building, which was gutted in a fire and demolished last summer.
The fates of the church and Katahdin sites have generated plenty of interest in town because of their high-profile downtown locations. The church is at 89 Main St., a few lots down from the fire station and municipal building. The Katahdin site is a plot of land sandwiched in the triangle between Main Street and Bennoch Road.
A sale-pending sign was added recently to the for-sale sign outside St. Mary’s, a 1.1-acre property that includes the church, a rectory and a convent.
The 6,932-square-foot facility recently was listed for $450,000, according to homes.com. Earlier listings had the price at $500,000.
Town planner Evan Richert told the committee Dayhim and Pourmomtaz are “doing their due diligence” as sale negotiations continue. Their attendance at Monday’s meeting was to hear from council members for the first time about what the town wants for the property.
Dayhim said the couple likely would live in the convent building but that appears to be their only definitive plan if the sale goes through.
“We want to keep it as close to its initial glory and beauty [as possible],” said Dayhim, a surgeon who spoke Monday for the couple. “To start, we figured we first [needed to know] what the town feels comfortable with.”
The church is located in a medium-density residential district, in between a village commercial zone and a high-density residential zone. Councilors discussed whether the zoning should be changed.
Councilor Liane Harris cited the example of a church in Portland that recently was turned into restaurant.
“Churches like this can be turned into a variety of possible uses,” Harris said. “I would hate to lose the opportunity to use this building for [anything] other than apartments. That would be my personal opinion. How we go about that is always complicated.”
St. Mary’s held its final Mass on Jan. 1, 2009. The Rev. Wilfred P. Labbe, St. Mary’s pastor, told the Bangor Daily News in late 2008 that the church’s heating system, the foundation and the stone façade need extensive repairs. He estimated at the time that repair costs could run from $500,000 to $1 million.
The repair estimates haven’t yet deterred the potential owners.
“It depends on what you want to do with it,” Dayhim said. “We haven’t come up with numbers yet. And you don’t have to do it all in one night.”
Earlier Monday afternoon, the council approved in a special meeting a $5,000 contract for A4 Architects of Bar Harbor to offer suggestions for redevelopment at the Katahdin site.
The 180-year-old Katahdin Building, owned by Robert and Jennifer Dudley of Winterport, burned June 9, 2009, in an electrical fire. It was demolished nearly two months later.
The site is bordered by town-owned property and private property. The Dudleys and the other property owner contributed $1,500 apiece toward the contract, Town Manager Cathy Conlow said.
The town, which had budgeted $7,500 for the architect, will use some of the leftover money to hire a site plan expert to represent the town, Conlow said.
Monday’s move may be a small step in an early part of the redevelopment process but could have a lot of ramifications.
“It has an important secondary purpose for either a potential developer or potential tenants who might in turn excite a developer and make it feel like it’s worth the risk to come to this site,” Richert said.