Downtown Bangor’s McGuire Building, which has been owned by the same family for decades, has been listed for sale at $2.7 million.
The building is home to two works of public art — the “Hopeful” sign and the “Greetings from Bangor” mural — and a longstanding bar, the Main Tavern, which has been partially closed for the last year and a half.
It was built in 1900 and has been owned by the Brountas family for more than 60 years. The Main Tavern, commonly known as just “the Tavern,” is one of Bangor’s oldest continually operating businesses. It opened in 1939 and has gone by many names over the years, including Peter’s Candlelighter and the Jaguar.
The bar is known for its popular karaoke nights. It’s been open sporadically on special occasions and for private parties in the last year and a half since owners Peter and Deb Brountas announced their retirement and put the commercial space up for lease, although a new business has yet to move in.
The owners wrote on Facebook at the time that they’d had “numerous offers” from people interested in buying the building or leasing the downstairs space. The building is split between two parcels of land that have a combined assessed value of $620,900, according to city property records.
The 158 Main St. building, at the corner of Union Street, is approximately 22,000 square feet, according to the listing. In addition to the bar, it’s also home to the Robinson Ballet studio upstairs and has six one-bedroom apartments with two shared bathrooms that have previously operated as a rooming house.
The Brountas are a prominent family in Bangor’s business and political worlds, producing three former mayors. The family used to run a Greyhound bus terminal in the building and expanded the bar when Greyhound moved its terminal to Hermon in 2012.
The bar has been a constant in the area amid dramatic changes to Bangor’s downtown over the last century, including during the period of urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s when many downtown buildings were torn down, and in more recent years as the district became busier, with the city’s waterfront concerts drawing crowds and small businesses opening up in once-shuttered storefronts.
Local artist and shop owner Annette Dodd painted one of downtown’s first murals, a vintage postcard-inspired wall that welcomes visitors to Bangor, on the side of the building in 2014 with the support of Peter Brountas, who lent the artists a room inside the building for storing paint.
Several years later in 2021, Yarmouth-based artist Charlie Hewitt created the colorful “Hopeful” sign that was installed on the other side of the building.
The owners did not respond to a request for comment Monday.