When Michael Cole fired off an email to a Bangor municipal lawyer in September, he wanted to make one thing clear: He wasn’t just another speculator.
“We are very serious about this and have been planning for months,” Cole wrote about his plans for the Bangor Mall in an email obtained by the Bangor Daily News in a public records request.
There were only a couple of email threads and two brief meetings between Cole and city leaders before he announced his ideas. Many in Bangor are now excited about his plans to turn the decaying mall into a mixed-use community hub with 200 condos, green space, cafes and an assisted living facility at its center. They also note it is a long way from reality.
“I guess I have a cautious optimism because there’s just a lot that needs to happen between now and and that actually happening,” City Councilor Carolyn Fish said.
Cole, representing Bangor Marketplace and Residences LLC, went under contract with current owner Namdar Realty Group last month, outlining his plans shortly afterward. He hopes to finalize the purchase in mid-June, after which he says it will take another year to 18 months of planning before construction can begin.
The news of Cole’s pending takeover prompted a major reaction in Bangor. He said businesses and developers have been calling him every day with proposals, including one business that would be able to start building right away after the deal is final. But plans are still tentative until the sale actually closes.
The mall has deteriorated sharply under Namdar, a New York-based firm that bought the mall in 2019 after it had already lost several major retailers. Only 30% of its storefronts are now occupied, according to Mainebiz. The company has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in fines for code violations including sewer and roof leaks. The city shut off power to the wing of the mall formerly occupied by Sears earlier this year.
Cole has been developing his proposal for about two years, he said. His pitch centered on a few themes: local ownership, community focus and willingness to work with the city.
“What we feel is very important is to have the ownership be local and by an entity that has a community focus and is not just open to work with the city but welcomes it,” he wrote to city staff in September.
The message has landed so far. Cole said state Sen. Joe Baldacci, D-Bangor, and other city leaders have been supportive. He turned down an offer of out-of-state funding because it had an “ick factor,” saying he wanted to keep the project rooted in the region.
About six parties expressed interest in buying the mall and met with city officials in recent months, City Manager Carollynn Lear said. Cole was one of them. City officials reached back out to Cole in mid-March after hearing from Namdar that he remained interested. Lear said she didn’t know the purchase was under contract until she read about it in the news.
Cole’s plans are informed by personal experience. His mother had dementia and spent eight years in an assisted living facility before dying. Visiting her, he noticed there was nothing to do in the area, informing his plan to put such a facility around shopping, homes and green space.
Former Planning Board chair Reese Perkins, who was on the board when the city updated its code to allow multifamily housing and mixed-use development in the mall’s zoning type, a change that makes Cole’s plan possible, said that fits what he already sees at the mall.
“If you go up there during the week, you don’t see many shoppers, but you see a lot of people walking — often older people just trying to get some exercise,” he said.
Cole said he plans to use revenue from the condos to fund the assisted living space and broader upgrades. He’s also pledged not to displace existing tenants, acknowledging calls he has gotten from people worried about their businesses being shut down.
“The standard is definitely going to be raised, but I would like to work with the businesses that are there and make their businesses great, because it’s because of them that that building’s still standing,” Cole said. “They’ve been paying the bills.”
In an interview, Cole seemed to have an unending supply of ideas for the space. He mentioned a section of women-only condos, parking garages, a shuttle service connecting the mall to nearby businesses and a nonprofit that would help fund startup costs for small businesses that wanted to use space in the mall.
Multiple councilors told the BDN they want to be active partners in making the plan succeed. Councilor Joe Leonard, who chairs the business and economic development committee, said the city would “go out of our way to coordinate with them.”
“I hope nothing but the best for the new owners coming in, and I can’t wait to see Namdar leave the city,” Leonard said.
Fish said her read of the council is that members “look forward to working on this plan and hope it comes to fruition.” But she also looked to temper her own expectations and those of others, noting that a lot needs to happen before the mall sees a rebirth.
Cole acknowledged his proposal is ambitious. He believes it will be part of a “huge boom” in Bangor, pointing to recent sales of the Airport Mall and a furniture store connected to the mall as signs of momentum.
For now, though, the deal isn’t done.
“That will definitely be good for Bangor if Mr. Cole is able to pull that off, and everything that we’ve seen so far, as far as plans, are exciting to us,” Lear said.
