Demolition of the former YMCA building in downtown Bangor started Monday afternoon after years of deterioration.
An excavator took down bricks and metal rafters at the back walls of the gym at the corner of Hammond and Court streets. Demolition revealed Monster Energy logos between layers of the brick.
The building, owned by Penobscot County, had been deteriorating for years. Bricks started falling off one corner of the building early last spring. County commissioners decided in 2023 to demolish the building, and asbestos removal in the building started in November.
The majority of the building was still standing at 4 p.m. Monday. Demolition is expected to take at least several weeks, County Administrator Scott Adkins said. He did not have a specific timetable available.
The county bought the more than 50,000-square-foot building for $825,000 in 2017, a day after the city of Bangor condemned the building. The property was sold by the estate of William Buxton, who died in 2016. He had bought the building in 2013 for a denturist school, but abandoned those plans.
After the YMCA consolidated into one building in 2008, multiple businesses occupied the space, including a church and martial arts studio.
A new jail and apartments are among things previously proposed for the site. The county does not have plans for the land, Adkins said. A “clean slate” on the lot is something the commissioners thought would draw interest from developers.
Correction: A previous version of the story misstated the type of equipment being used for the demolition. It was an excavator.
