A commercial space in the historic Bangor Hydro building that’s been empty for decades will soon become a downtown welcome center.
Visitors will be able to stop by the storefront on the corner of State and Exchange streets, pick up a brochure and ask questions of a staff person or volunteer who can share information and recommendations about things to do in Bangor, according to Betsy Lundy, executive director of Downtown Bangor Partnership.
The visitor center will be part of a larger tourism push in Bangor as the downtown district has become more lively in recent years and the city has welcomed cultural institutions like the waterfront concert venue and the Cross Insurance Center arena.
“Bangor’s constantly referred to in articles as like the best kept secret, right?” Lundy said. “And who wants to be the best kept secret? We want everybody to know how awesome we are.”
The welcome center at 33 State St. will include a visitor information station and a space operated by a partner, like an art gallery or a retailer, Downtown Bangor Partnership Marketing and Events Director Monique Bouchard said on a tour of the space last week.
The organization is looking for partners who could use space in front of the building, perhaps as a retail incubator for someone looking to try out a business, Lundy said.
The center’s opening date hasn’t yet been determined, but it could open this fall, according to Lundy.
“I feel like it will be extremely helpful to all the businesses downtown,” said Jazmin Horn, who owns Dream Charm Bar on Central Street.
Horn said it can be a lot of work for small businesses to get the word out about their events. Many other cities have an easily accessible, central place to find information about what’s happening and where to go around town, she said, and she’s excited for Bangor to have that, too.
The public-facing information desk will be staffed by a combination of Downtown Bangor Partnership employees, volunteers and interns, Bouchard said.
Lundy said she’d love to recruit volunteers from Bangor’s senior community. “There are so many people who are from here who have such an unbelievable appreciation and love for the community and also perspective that they can share, and that’s the kind of authenticity that I think makes Bangor really special,” she said.
The storefront will also welcome two radio stations, WKIT and Mix Maine, and the Downtown Bangor Partnership has moved its offices into the back of the first floor through the vault doors left over from when the building was a bank.
Besides the revenue from subleasing to the radio stations and another partner, the welcome center will be funded through the Downtown Bangor Partnership’s operating budget. The organization is a nonprofit and receives funding through a downtown special assessment tax.
The idea for the welcome center was partly spurred by the timing of cruise ships that dock at the waterfront, often on Sundays when many businesses are closed, Lundy said. Cruise ships started visiting Bangor in 2022 after an 11-year absence.
The Queen City is getting attention from out-of-state visitors, according to Lundy, who said that about half of visitors to the Downtown Bangor Partnership website are from New York or Boston.
Horn said she gets a lot of tourists in the summer — so much that she’s started curating products in her store with visitors in mind, like charms in the shape of lobsters, passports and blueberries that can commemorate their trips to Maine.
“Even if we’re not their destination, we’re their stop-through,” she said, noting Bangor’s proximity to Acadia National Park.
Visitors to the welcome center will see the inside of a building designed more than a hundred years ago by prominent Bangor architect Wilfred Mansur. Built for a bank in 1912, the building was most recently home to the Bangor Hydro Electric Company, now known as Versant Power.
The first floor has been empty since the company left in 2004. A real estate developer purchased the building in 2019 and welcomed residents into remodeled upper floor apartments three years ago.
Downtown Bangor Partnership moved into the first floor in late January, according to Lundy. The nonprofit wanted to preserve the historic character of the building and hasn’t had to do much renovation aside from small aesthetic changes, she said.