Bangor welcomed new housing and public spaces like a tiny home park, Harlow Street’s renovated City Hall and a 41-unit supportive housing facility in 2025, marking key steps toward the city’s goal of boosting housing stock and the local economy.
More changes are coming for the Queen City in the new year. Here are seven projects we’re watching that are set to move forward in 2026.
Commercial kitchen
City staff are hoping to start construction on a central commercial kitchen project in the spring, according to Anne Krieg, Bangor’s business and economic development director. The shared kitchen, which will offer incubator space to new food businesses, has been in the works for about ten years, and would likely finish construction in 2027, she said. The city plans to tear down the old officers’ club for Dow Air Force Base on Cleveland Street and put the facility in its place.
“There are people that are literally waiting for us to open so that they can rent space,” Krieg said of the excitement around the kitchen, which is one of her department’s biggest projects right now. Beyond supporting new businesses, the kitchen will also serve as a space for community events and cooking education, she said.
The project has secured $1.5 million in funding from Congress and the Northern Border Regional Commission, and the rest will come out of an economic development bond, according to Krieg.
New low and middle income housing
The Bangor Housing Authority broke ground this fall on Sunridge Senior Housing Apartments, a 50-unit building set to open summer 2026. Waitlist applications are now open for people 55 and over who make 60 percent of the area median income, or up to $44,000 a year.
There’s already a lot of interest in the units amid Bangor’s housing shortage. “People call on that all the time,” Bangor Housing director Mike Myatt said of the project. His agency recently closed the waitlists for its existing properties because they had gotten too long.
City leaders also are excited about plans to build 74 units of middle income housing on Grandview Avenue, for which the City Council designated pandemic relief funds last year. Permits for the project will be filed with the city’s Planning Board soon with the goal of starting construction in 2026, according to Krieg.
“That’s going to be a huge project for Bangor,” she said. “It’s a great location, right near shopping, right near the bus, right near the high school.”
Parks and recreation facility
Plans for a new combined Parks and Recreation facility and ice arena on Griffin Road faced a major setback when Bangor’s City Council decided not to put a bond on the November ballot for voters to weigh in on the project, but the city’s Parks and Recreation director hopes to get it on the ballot in June.
The new facility, estimated at the time to cost $68 million, would include two ice sheets, a three-court gym, a suspended track, locker rooms, child care areas and two outdoor turf fields. City staff and community members who served on a committee to give input on the project have stressed that it’s needed to replace the aging Sawyer Arena and existing Parks and Recreation facility on Main Street.
“We were on a tight timeline to satisfy both state statute and local ordinance to get that question on the November ballot, which ultimately did not happen,” Tracy Willette, Bangor’s Parks and Recreation director, told the BDN. He said his department plans to go back to the council in 2026 after re-evaluating the project.
Whether or not the bond is put to voters in June, it’ll still be at least a few years before the facility opens, according to Willette.
Pickering Square
Bangor’s Pickering Square, the park across from the city’s downtown transit hub, has been under construction for a year and a half and is set to finish in the spring after several delays.
“We think it looks fantastic. We think it will be used in the spring time,” Bangor engineering director Jeff Davis told the Bangor Daily News last month.
Most of the construction and landscaping were completed this fall, although manufacturer issues have delayed the addition of inground lighting, art panels, informational kiosks and two swinging benches.
I-95 bridge
The Maine Department of Transportation is working to replace the aging bridge carrying I-95 traffic over Broadway and plans to finish in late 2026. The state hit a key milestone last month when it demolished the southbound bridge after putting up a temporary span.
The steel girder bridge, which measures 152 feet across, is in poor condition and will cost $30.6 million to replace. It is crossed 50,000 times per day.
The next phase of construction will include building a new southbound bridge. The northbound bridge has already been replaced.
Airport renovations
Bangor International Airport will also see major renovations in 2026.
Plans are in place to remodel the TSA area to improve food options after going through security, according to Krieg.
“A lot of the things are outside TSA, so once you get back into that gate, there’s really not a lot there, so they’re trying to reverse that,” she said. “That’s going to be a huge improvement for travelers.”
Bangor YMCA
Construction will continue into 2027 for the new 82,000 square foot YMCA building on Main Street after the project officially began in October. The facility will be twice the size of the existing one on Second Street, allowing for a significant expansion of the organization’s childcare offerings.
“It’s a huge project and a huge undertaking, and we’re just so happy,” Krieg said about the nonprofit’s efforts.
The building will contain two pools, a full-court gym and indoor track, other fitness facilities, a cafe, a community kitchen and food pantry, and other amenities. The Bangor Region YMCA received $5 million in pandemic relief funding from the county and the city for the new facility.