Crowds of people flock to downtown Old Town on Friday nights to watch movies in Binette Park.
Kids stay for films like “Moana 2” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” while parents shop and eat at Main Street staples like Sewings and More and Kanu, respectively.
But next to those businesses are multiple empty storefronts, while a nearby park marks the spot that once held four buildings that were engulfed by a fire and later demolished.
Some of the storefronts, like the old antique store at 284 Main St., have sat vacant for years despite being on what Maine Department of Transportation data shows is the third-busiest road in Penobscot County.
Old Town officials are attempting to bolster the city’s downtown into an area that is an easy place to start a business and attracts foot traffic. Rent subsidies, streamlined permit processes and grants have all been pushed by officials to achieve the first goal, and they say it’s working. But vacant buildings — including three owned by Waterfront Concerts’ Alex Gray — and empty sidewalks still plague downtown, raising questions as to what more the city can do.
The devastating fire that ripped through the area in September 2019 displaced three businesses and 11 people who lived in apartments above the stores. The buildings were demolished just more than a month later, leaving a jarring hole in the city’s downtown.
Two years later, Old Town debuted a plan to turn its downtown into a destination that would attract more visitors. The most helpful changes have been the streamlined process for permit applications, code enforcement and interactions with city council, multiple business owners said.
And Downtown Old Town, a group dedicated to improving the area, has created popular events like summer movie and barbeque nights that pull citizens to downtown.
The group, led by Old Town Economic and Community Development Director E.J. Roach, is part of the Maine Downtown Center, an organization that helps downtowns be more successful through steps like attaining funding through grant writing.
Old Town is also still using $125,000 the city received more than five years ago as part of a community development block grant to offer business equipment loans, facade grants and rent subsidies. The facade grant has been the most popular, with multiple businesses upgrading their storefronts, while the rent subsidy has not been used.
The goal of these efforts, Roach said, is to make Old Town a place that welcomes small businesses.
That success is evident at the Old Town Professional Building, where nearly 20 businesses set up shop. The professional building at 136 Center St. opened just over a year ago and has been in demand since.
One of the businesses, Matty’s TCG and Collectibles, opened last week because of the affordable price and ease of obtaining a permit, owner Matthew Verburgt said. Through a partnership with Ellsworth-based Coastal Sports Collectibles, Verbugt sells Pokemon cards at the location.
Verburgt’s shop is one of many different businesses, ranging from massage therapy to life insurance firms, that the property owner wanted to fill the building with.
“We wanted a wide array of businesses that could help each other, and it’s obviously a challenge to fill an office building in this environment, but we’ve been able to do that in just over a year,” said Jason Elliott, vice president of Dresser Properties, which owns the building.
Meanwhile, multiple storefronts across the street have gone unused, the buildings destroyed in the 2019 fire have not been rebuilt and one of the city’s most prime spots sits empty.
The buildings next to Kanu on Main Street have been pitched as a concert venue, apartments or a maker space, but they won’t be any of those things in the next coming years.
Alex Gray, owner of Waterfront Concerts, bought the four buildings between 2017 and 2020 and opened Kanu, a restaurant and nightclub, in 2020. Since Kanu’s opening, Gray’s buildings at 277, 275 and 273 Main St. have sat empty. The interiors have been renovated, but that’s all the plans Gray has for the foreseeable future.
High interest rates, banks’ reluctance to give out loans and building costs have pushed Gray not to develop the spaces, and he said he won’t in the next couple of years.
“We have to get through tariffs and this current regime,” Gray said, referring to the Trump administration.
Similarly, the building across the street at 284 Main St. and one down the street at 255 Main St. have sat empty despite the city encouraging the owners to make changes, Roach said.
Multiple downtown business owners said the empty shops hinder foot traffic downtown.
The city does not keep foot traffic data. A Bangor Daily News reporter saw less than 10 people in downtown Old Town during multiple afternoons between noon and 3 p.m.
The city has weighed fining owners for vacant buildings to encourage development, something even Gray supported at a previous Downtown Old Town meeting, but an ordinance hasn’t been put in place.
Two buildings, 284 Main St. and 2 Wood St., would meet the criteria to be fined, but more buildings could be included, Roach said.
Two other holes stand out in an otherwise built-up downtown.
The field at 35 Middle St. where the Old Town Canoe factory was has been owned by the city since 2011. When the factory was demolished, the city cleaned up the land but it hasn’t been developed despite multiple companies reaching out, according to Roach.
A hospitality business reached out to Old Town to develop the space on Middle Street, but conversations have since paused because of federal funding uncertainty, Roach said.
The same is true for the area on Main Street destroyed by the fire years ago. The city bought the lots but has kept the space as a small park to foster more community interaction, Roach said.
Those spaces could be developed in the future, he added.
Two upcoming projects could help the city make more improvements. The Maine DOT is creating a revitalization plan through the Village Partnership Initiative that will be presented in the coming months. But Old Town would need to front multiple millions of dollars to fund the plan, Roach said.
Feedback from local business owners and residents will also help inform Old Town’s comprehensive plan that is being compiled for 2026. The last plan was published in 2016.
Roach said he knows the vacant spots and minimal foot traffic need to be addressed, but with the multiple groups the town is involved in and plans they’re working on, Old Town will continue to turn its downtown into a bustling area.
“We’re going in the right direction. We want to keep moving forward, keep that momentum going,” Roach said.
