The future of Bangor’s new ice arena and recreational center is beginning to take shape.
Bangor’s new parks and recreation facility will likely be a combined ice arena and recreation center on a 41-acre piece of land on Griffin Road near Husson University, according to Tracy Willette, Bangor’s parks and recreation director.
The roughly 92,000-square-foot building will hold two sheets of ice — one for youth hockey and high school events and the other for a practice area — as well as a gymnasium, child care space and room for other community activities, Willette said.
The property will also have a separate 30,000-square-foot building to hold offices for both city and school recreation maintenance staff next to the new facility.
“The city has become a destination for a variety of recreational, athletic and cultural activities, so a new facility like this would be one more amenity residents and visitors could enjoy,” Willete said.
Deciding where the new parks and recreation property will be built and what it will hold is the latest step in the city’s years-long process of replacing the existing facilities that have grown too old and small to meet the city’s and community’s needs.
Building a new combined ice arena and recreation center, Willette said, would also follow work the city has done in recent years on other entertainment and athletic facilities, such as the waterfront, Cross Insurance Center and Cameron Stadium.
Final estimated construction and operating costs for the facility and a potential building schedule will likely be released when the final feasibility study, which BerryDunn conducted, is presented to the Bangor City Council next month.
“Based on the information we’ve received from the surveys and stakeholder meetings, there’s enthusiasm to keep this project moving,” Willette said. “Hopefully that enthusiasm dictates a potential timeline.”
Sawyer Arena sits in Hayford Park on 13th Street and operates as a seasonal ice hockey rink from October to May. It began as an outdoor ice rink in the late 1980s or early 1990s before walls and a roof were added later, Willette said. The most recent renovation the building received was the addition of locker rooms around 2002.
The Bangor Recreation Center is based in the former Bangor Armory on Main Street, which was built in the 1930s, and hosts child care, recreational programming and city parks maintenance staff.
Both facilities were identified in the department’s 2021 master plan as needing major upgrades or total replacement.
The city and BerryDunn conducted a feasibility study that included feedback from 571 community members. More than 800 residents completed surveys to describe what they want in the new facility.
BerryDunn also identified six city-owned properties that could hold the new facility. The Griffin Road site, which the Bangor School Department owns, was determined to be the “most preferred site” because of its large size, central location and proximity to Interstate 95 and Husson University, Willette said.
Other potential locations included Bass Park, Cleveland Street and Grandview Avenue, but each was imperfect for being too remote, too small or having traffic issues.
BerryDunn also considered whether new facilities could be rebuilt in Sawyer Arena’s or the recreation center’s existing locations, but those were deemed too small to fit a combined facility.
