Housing
This section of the BDN aims to help readers understand Maine’s housing crisis, the volatile real estate market and the public policy behind them. Read more Housing coverage here.
More than two dozen units of new rental housing could be coming to Bangor next year.
The Bangor Planning Board voted unanimously Tuesday to give Emily Ellis, a local real estate agent and developer, preliminary approval to create 26 units of rental housing on outer Broadway.
Ellis aims to build 13 townhouse-style duplex buildings, totaling 26 units. Each home will have two bedrooms, one bathroom and offer slightly less than 1,300 square feet of living space, said Ellis, who’s also broker and owner of the Emily Ellis Team at Bangor-based Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Northeast Real Estate.
If created as planned, this development would be the latest housing project Ellis has helped bring to Bangor. Most recently, she was behind the contentious Maine Woods project off Essex Street, which added 60 units despite firm pushback from neighbors.
Ellis was driven to develop more housing to add to Bangor’s rental housing stock, most of which is in aging buildings that might not appeal to prospective residents, she said. The new units would also help close the city and state’s gaping housing shortage and the additional supply could lead to lower rent prices in Bangor over time.
“We’re trying to make basic housing for working families,” Ellis said. “We’re a small city, so we need to have a place where working people can live, work and thrive.”
The units will be rented at market rate, which Ellis estimated will be roughly $1,500 to $1,600 per month with heat and hot water included. The development will have a private well and septic system, but tenants will be responsible for electricity costs.
The housing is slated to be built at 2645 Broadway, an undeveloped 5-acre plot near Bangor’s border with Glenburn.
The property will include two parking spaces for each unit and an access road, the application describes. Ellis said she plans to name the access road Linebacker Lane in honor of her son, Ellis Throckmorton, a standout football player at Husson University.
With preliminary approval for a land development permit in hand, Ellis said, she will need to drill for a well before seeking final approval.
The construction launch date will depend on when the project receives all necessary permits, but Ellis hopes it can begin in May and wrap up by fall 2027.
“Hopefully, we can get people living there before winter,” Ellis said. “I live in Bangor, I love Bangor and I want to be part of the recipe for how Bangor is successful.”