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.
Construction of a project slated to create 55 rooms of dormitory-style housing in Bangor has yet to begin more than two years after city officials approved it.
The Bangor Planning Board in 2024 issued a land development permit for a roughly 21,000-square-foot co-living dormitory at 416 Stillwater Ave., next to MaineSpace self-storage facility. If created, the development would have 55 single rooms and residents would share common spaces such as bathrooms and kitchens.
Today, the lot is still empty.
Sean Thies of Haley Ward, the project manager for the co-living building, said the developer “remains fully committed to the project and anticipates going forward as soon as practicable.”
But Bangor requires that construction begin on a project within one year of the planning board’s approval and be completed within two. This means the developer would need to re-apply for permits to move forward with construction.
The delay shows the city’s approval is just one step in the years-long process of building housing, and local permits do not guarantee those units will get created. It also reveals how growing the region’s housing stock is largely out of the city’s control after it approves permits for private developers.
Anja Collette, Bangor’s planning officer, said it’s “certainly disappointing” when developers don’t break ground on housing projects after the city has done its part to approve them. But, she added that at least 90% of the projects Bangor greenlights move forward.
“It goes to show that there are many factors affecting the supply of housing in the city,” Collette said.
The situation also highlights how tracking the number of units approved by a community is not always an accurate measure of how much housing is being created.
That’s why the Maine Office of Community Affairs and the Greater Portland Council of Governments began collecting data last year on how many certificates of occupancy were issued in Maine communities, among other information.
The dormitory was designed to serve as short-term housing for Bangor’s transient workforce, according to the original project application. Guests could be people who don’t yet have the income or savings to secure permanent housing or contracted workers who aren’t intending to stay in Bangor permanently, such as travel nurses.
416 Stillwater Avenue LLC, which was the applicant on the project, appears to still own the nearly 2-acre site after buying it in 2023 for $400,000, according to Bangor property records.
The Maine Secretary of State’s office shows 416 Stillwater Avenue LLC’s name was changed to Brian and Caroll LLC, but that company was “administratively dissolved” in late 2024 for failing to file an annual report.
Attempts to reach Paul Woods, who is listed as the contact for 416 Stillwater Avenue LLC on the project application, were unsuccessful Friday.
Thies did not give a specific reason why construction of the new housing hasn’t launched, but said “escalating construction costs and staffing challenges” are hampering development everywhere and “adjustments to bidding and scheduling are naturally part of meeting the challenges of the current building environment.”
Bangor officials and developers have long pointed to cost as the major barrier for housing production both locally and statewide. Labor, land and construction material prices have all spiked in recent years, which means developers need to rent or sell the homes at a higher price to make a profit.
“Developers are telling me that our construction is at Boston-level pricing, but even on market-rate housing they have a hard time meeting that return on investment,” Anne Krieg, Bangor’s community and economic development director, previously told the Bangor Daily News.