One of downtown Bangor’s biggest apartment buildings sold for $19 million earlier this month.
A Bangor-based corporation, Apartment Living LLC, bought Tower 99 at 99 Franklin St. on Sept. 3, according to Maine real estate tax documents. Bangor property records place the assessed value of the property at $3.7 million, far below the building’s purchase price of $19 million.
The property was previously owned by Vance Aloupis, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Bangor, who bought the five-story building in 2018 for $1.3 million to redevelop it into luxury apartments. At the time, Aloupis owned two other large apartment complexes in Bangor through his company, Longrale Apartments, with 128 units in total.
Before that, 99 Franklin St. was the corporate headquarters of Bangor Savings Bank for more than 20 years before the company moved to its current location on the Bangor Waterfront in 2019.
The building is one of several in downtown Bangor that has been remodeled within the last decade and turned into high-end apartments in an effort to ease the housing crunch felt both locally and statewide. That shortage of units has led the cost of housing to increase and made it difficult for people to move where they need or want to live.
Tower 99 was completed in 2020 and now holds 18 one- and two-bedroom apartments that each have large windows, 10-foot ceilings, modern appliances, in-unit laundry and air conditioning, among other features. The building also offers tenants access to a rooftop patio, covered parking and a fitness center.
The bottom floor of 99 Franklin St. was built in 1912 after the Great Bangor Fire of 1911 destroyed much of the area. Four additional floors were built on top of the ground floor in the 1970s before Bangor Savings moved there in the 1990s.
The building’s one-bedroom units are 750 to 900 square feet and rent starts at $2,000 a month. Two-bedroom units are 1060 to 1300 square feet and pricing begins at $2,550 per month.
The Bangor Housing Study released in February found median rent in Bangor was $930 three years ago. Now, the average monthly cost of a rental unit in Bangor sits at $1,600, according to data compiled by Zillow.
Attempts to reach Apartment Living LLC were unsuccessful.
