![]() “Thankfully they were able to get the rides back up and running, unlike prior years,” McGrail said. Some of the fair’s most popular rides also required frequent maintenance throughout the weekend. ![]() This year, Smokey’s Greater Shows, which provides the fair’s carnival midway, promised fair organizers 22 rides, but delivered only 19, McGrail said. While this year’s fair saw more visitors and higher earnings than 20, and the agriculture portion returned after being noticeably absent for the past three years, McGrail said there are plenty of improvements to be made. The Bangor State Fair, which dates back to 1849, was canceled altogether in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those years’ fairs saw an average of 14,520 patrons and earned $312,244 on average. “I think it’s great to see them do more with local business, like us, and G-Force, Messology, becoming almost like a community,” he said.Attendance and revenue have been slowly recovering since the pandemic, but the fair schedule was shortened to four days between 20, reducing the amount the event could earn. He said he saw its future in welcoming more local businesses like his own. Will Hesketh, the co-owner of the Bangor Toy and Comic Con storefront in the mall, said the era of the Bangor Mall as home to exclusively big-box and chain stores was effectively over. “We don’t want to hold back the ability to either do a complete redevelopment of the parcels or reuse of the building as it stands.” “What we’re trying to do at the city level is offer a diversity of options,” Krieg said. Molly Notto, left, and her daughter Tina Lipcsei, owner of The Brewer Craft Lady, set up Lipcsei’s station for the annual Christmas craft fair in the Bangor Mall this weekend.Įfforts to take a similar approach with the Bangor Mall would be up to its owners, Namdar Realty, since the mall and its surrounding land is privately owned, Krieg said.Ī spokesperson for Namdar did not respond to a request for comment. “What we’re hearing from people is they’d like to see either continue as retail and commercial, or go to some residential use.” “Our role, really, is to offer options and zoning to welcome different uses,” she said. The city last year rezoned parts of the mall area to allow industrial use, in addition to retail, and the city’s comprehensive plan that’s in the works could include proposals to rezone the area to allow for more uses, like a mix of residential and commercial units, said city planning officer Anne Krieg. While Bangor’s efforts to encourage more housing have largely focused on existing residential neighborhoods or the creation of new subdivisions, the city has taken some steps that could lead to the mall area being used for purposes other than pure retail. ![]() Though it’s now home to a growing entertainment hub, large amounts of space inside the sprawling building remain empty, a fact the Bangor Mall’s owner, Namdar Realty LLC, has used in its repeated requests for lower property tax bills.Īs Bangor faces a housing crunch that has resulted in rising rents, first-time homebuyers getting outbid and a growing homeless population, conversion projects that have turned malls elsewhere into complexes that combine housing with smaller-scale retail show one potential path forward for the largely vacant Bangor Mall. Harvey’s craft fair is one of the only times of the year when a large number of shoppers is guaranteed to enter the 60-acre indoor retail center. Business woman Kathy Harvey started the craft fairs that fill the Bangor Mall with with visitors two weekends a year.
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