BANGOR, Maine — The City Council approved the sale of the former Fire Station No. 6, located at 4 Griffin Road, to the Penobscot Theatre Company at its meeting on Monday night.
The theater group plans to use the space as a workshop to build sets, to store its considerable collection of costumes, and to provide living quarters for production apprentices who come to Bangor each season from all over the country to work with the company.
“Our handcrafted sets are a crucial element of our art,” said artistic director Bari Newport, in a statement released after the vote was made. “And our resident apprenticeship program is key to building operational capacity and developing young talent. Acquiring the former firehouse will allow us to avoid the vagaries and perpetual cost of rental space for these essential functions.”
For years, Penobscot Theatre Company has rented space to build sets or use for storage, most recently at 216 Thatcher St., near Beal College. The costumes, of which there are thousands of individual pieces, are currently stored in the cramped balcony space on the third floor of the Bangor Opera House, which the theater owns. Off-site storage will permit the company to redefine that area.
“Our plans for interior renovations of the Opera House are still developing,” said PTC board of directors vice president and facilities committee head Fritz Oldenburg. “But certainly we can and should make better use of the considerable space above the second-floor rehearsal room.”
The 4,800-square-foot building has been empty since 2009, when the Bangor Fire Department moved into a newly constructed fire station just down the road from the old one. The building, which belongs to the city, will be purchased by Penobscot Theatre for $225,000. The theater estimates the old station will require about $24,000 in renovations.
The theater will put down $10,000 initially, with the city and the theater planning to close on the purchase in March. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Bangor Fire Department’s Fire Equipment Replacement Fund.
Because the theater is a nonprofit organization, it is exempt from paying taxes on the building. Penobscot Theatre Company has agreed to make an annual payment to the city beginning in fiscal year 2016 in an amount equal to 50 percent of the property taxes that would be assessed on the building if it was not exempt from taxation. The 50 percent figure will again be paid for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. In 2019, the theater will pay 90 percent of what those taxes would be, and from 2020 on it will pay 100 percent.
“To date, we have received grants of $10,000 from the C. Walder Parke Family Foundation and $5,000 from the Maine Theatre Fund of the Maine Community Foundation,” said PTC executive director Mary Budd. “We will pursue additional grant funds in the weeks ahead.”
The theater also will announce in the new year a fundraising drive to cover the remaining costs of the purchase and renovation.
