Bangor senior center targeting new location after selling downtown building
Courtesy of Gabor Degre from the Bangor Daily News
Hammond Street Senior Center sold the building at 2 Hammond St. in Bangor for $415,000 in November.
Hammond Street Senior Center plans to raise $375,000 to open elsewhere in Bangor after selling its downtown building to a property management firm last month.
The nonprofit, which offers classes and activities to people 55 and older, had hoped to relocate immediately after selling the property, but the building sold for well below the asking price.
The buyer, 127 Franklin St. LLC, a company affiliated with Bangor-based DES Properties LLC, bought the historic building for $415,000 in a deal that closed on Nov. 2, according to Kathy Bernier, executive director of the Hammond Street Senior Center. The original asking price was $750,000.
“When we accepted the offer, we thought this would be the best chance of being able to move forward,” Bernier said. “Otherwise, we were just sitting there with a building for sale and the inability to run it, and all of our staff and membership would be gone.”
Representatives of DES Properties LLC didn’t respond to requests for an interview about their plans for the building. DES Properties, based at 40 High St., specializes in property management for single-family homes, one- to five-bedroom apartments and commercial properties within the Bangor-Brewer area, according to its website.
Half of the purchase price went back to the building’s previous owner, the Couri Foundation, Bernier said. John and Elaine Couri of Connecticut founded the senior center in 1999, and invested more than $3 million over the first 11 years for building improvements and other operating expenses, she said. Merrill Trust Co. Bank was the original owner of the building, which dates to 1911.
After real estate and legal fees, moving and storage costs and other operating expenses, about $130,000 to $150,000 is expected to remain for the senior center’s July 2016 target relocation date — not enough funds to make the move, Bernier said. The center’s furniture and program materials were put in storage. A public sale of remaining items kicked off a relocation fund.
Bernier, now operating from an office at 61 Main St. in Bangor, is seeking funding from grants, sponsors and community donations, with a goal of raising $375,000, for a total of $500,000 for relocation and ongoing operation expenses.
“We know where we want to go, but the money comes first,” Bernier said. “We hope to open again in July of 2016.”
Bernier and her board of directors have identified two large, vacant, adjacent retail spaces at Bangor’s Airport Mall on outer Union Street as ideal locations for the center.
“It’s such a better location and, really, location is everything,” she said. “If we had had the foresight, 16 years ago, to choose what was best, I don’t think we would have picked three stories in downtown Bangor.”
The center serves seniors from more than 45 area towns and cities. Before closing, the center had just over 500 members.
The center’s operations budget is funded through corporate sponsorship, special event fundraising, memorial giving and support from 16 municipalities. Until 2011, the Couris covered shortfalls, Bernier said. In 2011, the couple donated a one-time sum of $200,000 to cover shortfalls, and in 2013, the couple transferred ownership of the property to Hammond Street Senior Center, the nonprofit established to accept ownership.
Currently, members are holding classes and activities in various locations, including churches, housing projects and other gathering places.
“I think the area is pretty shocked that the senior center closed,” Bernier said. “For a senior to be sitting at home, especially through the winter, is bad for them. Depression is a big issue for seniors who are alone. They need a place for social interaction, a place to call their own.”
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