A local housing agency plans to break ground next month on a new development that will add 50 apartments for low-income seniors to Bangor’s housing stock.
Bangor Housing Development Corporation, a partner agency of the Bangor Housing Authority, anticipates starting construction on Sunridge Senior Housing around the third week of June, according to Michael Myatt, executive director of the Bangor Housing Authority.
The building will sit on a vacant piece of land between Sunset and Texas avenues and offer 44 one-bedroom apartments, priced at $1,160 per month, and six two-bedroom units with a monthly rent of $1,395, Myatt said.
The housing is for people ages 55 and older whose income is 60 percent of the area median income, which is set each year by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. For one person, this would be an annual income of $28,000 to $43,000, or $33,000 to $49,000 for a two-person family, Myatt said.
This development will create housing for some of the “thousands” of seniors on BangorHousing’s waitlists, Myatt said. The influx of new units should also create movement within the city’s housing stock and soothe the region’s “incredible housing crisis,” he said.
“Building senior housing is a three-for-one in Bangor because it opens up so much housing stock that has never been able to move,” Myatt said. “The market is so tight right now, so if we can open up Sunridge, it will hopefully provide a little bit of loosening to a market that otherwise does not move.”
Myatt believes the apartments will allow older adults to downsize and move out of single family homes, so that young families that were stuck in apartments can move in. That, in turn, could free up apartments for new graduates and first-time renters looking to make Bangor their home.
While the Bangor Housing Development Corporation is the project developer, Bangor Housing Authority will manage the property, Myatt said. Portland-based Wright Ryan is the construction manager.
The building will be all-electric with a rooftop solar array and offer on-site laundry facilities and common areas with seating and a library, according to Myatt. There will also be a covered area outside and a walking path around the property that will provide easy access to the Community Connector bus stop on Texas Avenue.
The units will be wheelchair accessible and have other accessibility aids, such as grab bars, so residents can stay in the apartments even as their needs and mobility change.
MaineHousing is providing a 4 percent low-income housing tax credit and a $6 million deferred loan for the project, Myatt said.
“On top of that, MaineHousing is going to loan us about $3.2 million,” he said. “When we add that to the $2 million city of Bangor ARPA allocation, we’re able to pull together a total project cost of $19.8 million.”
Construction will take about a year, Myatt said, and BangorHousing hopes to begin moving in residents around the Fourth of July 2026.
The apartment building is the first phase of a two-part development that will ultimately offer 100 new housing units to low-income seniors, Myatt said. BangorHousing hopes to later build another 50-unit apartment building, called Conifer Ridge, on an adjacent piece of land the agency bought from the University of Maine in Augusta Bangor campus.
“There’s a shortage of all kinds of housing in Bangor, including longer term care,” Myatt said. “We see this as the most affordable way for our lower income seniors to live here independently for as long as they can.”