BANGOR, Maine — Bangor hopes to take over a prominent, long underused downtown property for unpaid taxes, opening the site to potential redevelopment.
The 30,000-square-foot Central Building at 73 Central St. has been largely vacant for decades. It would become the most significant property the city has taken over under its recent crackdown on delinquent taxpayers and dilapidated structures.
There are six liens against the building, totaling nearly $35,000, David Little, Bangor’s tax collector and deputy treasurer, told the city’s Finance Committee during a meeting Monday night.
The owner of the building, David S. Boyd of California, owes about $33,600 in unpaid real estate taxes, just under $1,000 in downtown development taxes and a couple years worth of unpaid sewer charges tacking on another $300. The IRS also holds a lien against the property, but it has given the city verbal permission to take the steps needed to take over the building, Little added.
In past years, Boyd stayed just ahead of the lien maturation process by neglecting to pay taxes for several years until the deadline loomed.
“Someone would keep coming in and paying the taxes just before they matured, but not this year,” city Finance Director Deb Cyr said Monday. When the lean maturation date passed, the legal ownership of the building passed to the city.
The city reached out to Boyd before that deadline, sending out certified notices that were returned with signatures, but the payments never came in, Little said. The last time Boyd made any payment was in December 2014, according to the city.
If Boyd were to step forward, city officials would speak with him but would not be required to allow him to pay his debts to regain ownership, Little said.
The Central Building has an assessed value of $477,500, and it has fallen into disrepair after decades of vacancy and underuse.
The city likely will issue a request for proposals to find a developer for the space, who would purchase the building after submitting a detailed plan to renovate and reopen it.
The last time the building saw regular use was in 2007, when the bottom two floors briefly housed the Ofelia’s Arte Fino Gallery, a combination thrift shop, art gallery and performance venue.
Ofelia’s closed a few months after opening when the city condemned the property because multiple code violations — most seriously the certification of the sprinkler system and problems with the alarm system — hadn’t been addressed. The business lasted less than a year.
Cyr said the building likely would need significant renovations before being put back to use.
In 2011, the Bangor Historical Society temporarily moved into 73 Central to set up an exhibit commemorating the 100th anniversary of Bangor’s Great Fire of 1911, which devastated much of the downtown. That was the last time the building was in use. On occasion, the first floor also has opened up to serve as political campaign offices.
Known as Central Building, the structure rose from the ashes of Bangor’s Great Fire of 1911, opening in 1912 as part of the community’s concerted push to recover. It was designed by architect Wilfred E. Mansur, who was responsible for dozens of homes and prominent downtown structures leading up to and in the wake of the fire.
Originally, it was home to five street-level shops, second-floor offices, and a large hall that at the time was the largest assembly space in the city aside from the original Bangor auditorium, which operated from 1897 until it was replaced in 1955, according to author Deborah Thompson, who wrote a history of Bangor architecture.
The Central Building was redeveloped in the 1980s, which is when workers built an addition on top of the building with plans to develop a fitness center. Nothing ever came of that development effort.
The full City Council will have to decide whether to give final approval to take possession of the building at a future meeting. It could be several months before a request for proposals is issued, meaning construction might not begin until spring even if a new buyer is found quickly, Cyr said.
Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.