A group that was hoping to open a new event space in downtown Bangor this week has been forced to alter its plans after the city inspected the space late last week and found that it wasn’t qualified to hold large crowds because it lacked such features as fire sprinklers, emergency lighting and accessibility for people with disabilities.
On Thursday of this week, the group had been planning to hold a grand opening of the space, called Top of the Nine, on the fourth floor of 9 Central Street, which boasts panoramic views of downtown Bangor. The business partners who had been planning to open the venue are Rebecca Krupke, Dan Sullivan and brothers Jackson and Tristan Greenlaw. The building currently houses The Grind House and Jersey Subs on its ground floor.
After the opening, they planned to host a swing dance social on Saturday followed by other arts and dance events in the months to come.
[This new event space gives attendees a view of Bangor from above]
But last Friday afternoon, the city’s code enforcement officer, Jeff Wallace, and two fire inspectors met with the business partners and visited the fourth-floor space, after a citizen contacted the city the previous day with concerns about the venue, according to Wallace.
Because of the venue’s size — 1,348.5 square feet — the inspectors determined that it wasn’t suitable to host crowds any larger than 13 people.
Besides lacking fire safety features, the building also does not meet some requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and lacks a bathroom on the fourth floor, according to Wallace. That means it couldn’t be classified as “an assembly” space on its city occupancy permit, a designation that would be required to hold events there.
“To hold events where the occupant load exceeds 13, significant improvements to the building, including, but not limited to, sprinkler coverage, emergency lighting, ADA access and bathroom access would need to be performed,” Wallace wrote in a letter to the proprietors.
Due to previous commitments, Wallace said he was not able to visit the space until Friday, the same day the Bangor Daily News published an article about the expected opening of Top of the Nine.
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In an emailed statement, the Top of the Nine partners said that they now plan to use that fourth-floor space as an office — that’s how the city classifies the space in its occupancy permit — and are looking for other downtown properties where they can locate their event venue.
“Our mission is to be supportive of all the arts in Bangor and to provide a historically attractive avenue for the citizens is still our goal,” they wrote. “Not skipping a beat, we are looking for locations downtown large enough to accommodate events we want to host for the city. The response has been positive from the citizens and code enforcement for our ventures.”
They were gracious to the city staff who have been working with them. “We are pleased with code enforcement as they are doing their jobs exceptionally well,” they wrote in the email.
They also plan to keep the name Top of the Nine for their venture.
Tanya Emery, the city’s director of community and economic development, wrote in an email that “it is disappointing when a project cannot move forward as intended,” but she said that it’s critical for buildings to adhere to safety codes.
“This issue also underscores the importance of consulting with your local officials, particularly code enforcement, early on in the planning phase of any project,” Emery said. “We’re happy to assist them, if they wish, to try to modify their plans in a way that can be safe and code compliant, or provide other options.”