BANGOR, Maine — The city will try to decide in coming months whether to overhaul or demolish the old Bangor police station — and how to accomplish that without causing Court Street to crumble into the Kenduskeag Stream.
The Court Street station was shuttered in 2006, after 76 years in service, when the new $8 million Summer Street station opened its doors.
“During the last six years, not many people have set foot in it, let alone maintained mechanical systems in the building,” Director of Public Services Art Morgan said Tuesday afternoon before presenting Sargent Corp.’s findings to the city’s infrastructure committee.
Sargent Corp. completed a structural study of the Court Street station in October. Sargent found the boarded-up building was “unsafe for public access,” and the only way to ensure its structural integrity would be to strip away the concrete to test and inspect the building’s steel framework and mechanical systems.
“This would be very expensive and likely find significant issues,” Morgan said.
Sargent offered three suggestions to the city: rehabilitate the building or pick from two possible demolition projects.
Rehabilitation would carry the highest cost. An overhaul to make the building safe and bring it up to code likely would cost somewhere in the range of $20 million to $30 million, according to Morgan.
On the more affordable side are two demolition projects, but removing the building presents a problem because the structure acts as a retaining wall for a portion of Court Street. Without the building or some form of other support, “probably Court Street would end up in the Kenduskeag Stream or in the parking lot below [the station],” Morgan said.
The first demolition option would involve removing the building and replacing it with a slope from the Court Street sidewalk down to the parking lot. That would cost around $1.2 million, according Sargent’s estimate.
The second demolition option would mean building a steeper slope to a 20-foot-tall retaining wall. That project would cost about $1.5 million, according to Morgan, but it has the added benefit of allowing for more than 30 parking spaces to be placed on a portion of the defunct building’s footprint.
Both projects would require shutting down Court Street so a natural gas main could be moved. Water, sewer and data lines could stay, but an 1870s-era brick sewer line could fail because of construction vibrations, Morgan said. Steel supports would also be installed to prevent Court Street from crumbling or sliding during construction, according to Morgan.
Concerns about the structural integrity of the old police station arose as early as 2001, when Caswell Engineering inspected the building and found significant deterioration in floor joists and structural framing. The concrete also was deteriorating with age and groundwater from Court Street was leaking through the walls.
Morgan said the city has not secured funding sources for any of the project ideas, but that the City Council and city officials would begin considering their options after Tuesday’s informational meeting with the infrastructure committee.
Would anyone really miss Court Street?
I would.
Very funny…I would miss Court Street…I live here and love living here.
You should email me.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get samples of the ivy growing on the front of the building before they tear it down.
It’s a great little climbing ivy that I’ve admired for 20-odd years.
Watch out for hypodermic needles if you start digging around in the soil on Court Street.
Go get it. Nobody would care just don’t broadcast it.
What about the option of letting Court Street fall into the river? I vote for that one.
With any luck a good portion of lower Ohio St. would follow it.
Clean up your own backyard first. Lower Ohio is beautiful and if last year was any indication, they have some of the most beautiful Christmas lighting homes in the downtown. Waiting to see if this year is the same.
Talk about a win-win situation for everyone. Court Street collapsed years ago, it just hasn’t gone away yet.
Court St. has had a lot of work in recent months. I drive up every day and it is ripe for reclaiming to its former glory.
Have you seen the massive retaining wall behind the old Merrill Bank on Main St.? That is an engineering miracle. What about something like that?
It would be sad to see this building go. I think its history lends value to our city. Anytime we can save our downtown history, I think we should try. If we did it in phases, over a period of many years, it might be feasible.
It has deteriorated Daniel. It is now dangerous. Sad but true and probably planned exactly for that reason. We have a lot of people here in town that like demolition so they can put up hideous things in the name of progress.
Council, tear it down and prepare the space for private sale.I have been eying this spot for many years. I have never been inside it but that wont matter because it needs to go. A nice inner city condo project is long overdue as long as there is some planning. Put it out for RFP and the developers will come flooding in, I just might be one of them. Oh heck, I will be one of them but hopefully the successful one. My RE lawyer is getting ready for me to start another project anyway. I have completed very successful projects like this in the past. Location is everything and this location is almost there. Think of the job creation and year round economic development, that lasts. About 32 units with river views, connected to the walking trails with such close proximity to our vibrant and revitalized downtown has big big potential. Rooftop terraces, exposed decks overlooking the river and so on. First things first though. The city has to get rid of that trashy dump strip club and wanna be nightclub across the river so when the handful of pervs that leave those “hole in the wall” establishments can not cause idiotic drunken behavior to leak over to that property every weekend into the early morning hours. l bet a little peace and quiet for the citizens would go a long way when developers look around at sites. Those poor folks at the school house and Franklin place condos are not happy. I am involved in a local charitable organization and so is another board member that lives at Franklin Place. I gotta tell ya, they are dreading the weekends right no and they feel that nobody cares. The strip club says once the customers are in the parking lot their responsibility ends which is true. Wanna Know why? THIS IS THE KICKER!!!
The parking lots of the basement alternative bar (Gemini I think) and the upstairs free-for-all strip club own no parking lots, NONE!!!. They don’t own what surrounds their building or Abbott square.
If I was the city I would shut those parking lots down after 8pm for a couple of reasons or by permit only.
a. The two businesses that get free parking trash those lots and do not have to maintain them, the taxpayer does.
b. Any accidents, slip and falls that were to occur there is the City of Bangor’s responsibility. No wonder the club owners want them into the lot, it ain’t there problem…ever. What a deal. “I slipped and fell”. Here is the number to city hall, Sue ’em. The bar owners have no liability in a business that is heavy on liability.
c. The neighbors that have been established taxpayers for years are legitimately upset as they should be by noise, vulgarity, pollution and debris all over their fine area.
d. Future year round economic growth is going to be stunted until the city does what they have a fiduciary and legal obligation to do for it’s citizens.
If I bought a condo on Franklin Place or School House I would not let my filthy neighbors let a bunch of hacks devalue my real estate.
I am thinking of helping a friend of mine that lives at Franklin though. He has just as much right to all those parking spots around the strip club, basement bar and abbott square.
Let’s clean it up Bangor. You could be onto something great with this hub if played right. Private money is waiting on the sidelines watching your moves,
Good Luck.
You would build a fancy condo development in the middle of one of Bangor’s most disgusting slum neighborhoods? And your chief concern would be a bar a half mile away? Hopefully your lawyer will tell you to save your money.
Half mile? I could hit it with a 9 iron. But I am talking to someone that is geographically challenged, You still feel that all the Mainers are going to all those Massachusetts casinos. Just curious Bangoran, name one. HHAHAHHAHAAHHA.
Anyone who would call this area a slum has never seen a real slum.
Downtown development shuold be encouraged so that it doesn’t become one.
Thank you for that!!…Court St resident..
No problem. People talk about “leveling 1st st, court st, 3rd st, when all that really needs to be done is serious capital improvement. Capital improvement will come if there can be a return on investment and the old PD space provides that. I have spent a lot of time walking the woods and footprint of this area since looking into this project. It is absolutely beautiful space to erect a fine high end condo building and has plenty of woods and privacy around it on the north west side and a river to the east.This area would be buoyed by a macro scale project that would be funded all by private dollars. One of the biggest draws is the river and it’s view. Go to that lot at 1am and imagine the project I am looking at then look out across the river on what would be your balcony or rooftop terrace and tell me you like what you see. Very tough sell. When people shell out 300k on a nice unit they want to be able to have a glass of wine without listening to “Bangor’s dumbest” holler obscenities every 30 seconds.
Good luck to someone who has done their homework.
Thank you. There is more to be done as you can imagine but a lot has already been done as well. The price point and market has been established and there are some letters of intent to buy if such a space comes to fruition. The city plays a large third party role.
You’d need to deal with the view of the jail property from the decks but maybe the jail could move to the YM and put the entrance and an exercise yard on the uphill side as a vivid example to lawbreakers in the area.
The view can be hidden and the angle of the building helps obstruct the view of the jail. That would actually be the narrow/utility side of the building but I do like your input. The noise on the other hand is what we are seeing as the largest problem. Plus, to BEHONESTFORONCE (like that) some of our market would come from Franklin Place and Bangor school house people looking to have the same city services but want to upgrade their living status but have two problems. First, their values have dropped since the trash moved in across the river keeping them up all hours of the night at the strip club and basement bar and they need their value restored to be able to justify the move and second, they don’t want to have the same thing happen to them again. The ‘ole fool me once , well, don’t fool me again thing. (loved that one GWB).
There will be a website link soon in this paper for people to check it out. I am not the owner, just one of a couple investors, with a preferred unit if we can get this off the ground.
Also, I stood at this site during the largest outdoor concert in the city last year (Jason Aldine I think) and it is actually quite sheltered by buildings to the south. The noise from the concert was almost non existent but the facilities across the river that are allowing their clientele to disrupt city property has to stop.
That’s the thing. The noise matters in some places. It makes no difference at all in others. There should be a balanced approach and not the “our way or the highway” deal that’s been going on. We come through there at night and have seen the problem you speak of.
There’s noise and there’s noise. I have no objection at all to hearing live music from my porch or bedroom. A guy screaming obscenities at his girlfriend, at any time of day or night, loud enough for me to hear inside my home, should be locked up for disturbing the peace.
Absolutely agree with you.
“Inner City” Condos? LOL….don’t get out much do you?
Contrary. That area is also right beside the jail. Nothing wrong with that.
Put something up there to honor Joshua Chamberlain. An extraordinary local figure.
We can accomplish both. How about a condo building with his name on it, maybe “The Chamberlain”,or “Chamberlain Place”? I’ve already said too much. It will be neat to see if anyone really reads these comments.
This is kind of funny since the City tried to get the County to buy the building after the PD moved at a very low price. Of course the commissioners were smart enough to know the issues and said “no thanks”. Basically trying to put the cost onto the County. Either way, it’s a project that needs to be done and can’t be ignored. .
The County got enough when they managed to cram the PO into that little hole in the wall. I’d have loved to see the wrangling that took place for that! A city the size of Bangor and that’s the PO. Still laughing over that one. Sort of.
it would be nice to have something other than a retaining wall and parking lot go there…. something to begin the gentrification of court street…
Maybe it needs to be repaired and used as a “Police Sub Station”. This would make it a quicker response to the normal excitement in the area…
The police have plenty of sub stations already, they are call “crowned vics”.
Downtown Bangor needs new residential upscale housing and there are feasibility studies to support it. That would keep sustained growth for the shops, eateries and other fine establishments that downtown is looking to expand upon and accommodate.
Can’t tell if the dislikes are for the Crown Vics or the upscale residences?
1.5 Million? No way. Lots of dynamite will take care of the old police station, Clean up Court St. and hopefully take lower Ohio with it. Tax payers won’t be paying for the police to be there all the time. I would make a nice big park and get rid of the building that the YMCA cannot sell. And you have saved us taxpayers a bundle.
Cheapest way, tear it down and if court st goes or whatever else goes, just leave it, walk away, no need to clean up.