BANGOR, Maine — The renovation of the long-vacant former Dakin Sporting Goods building overlooking downtown Bangor’s West Market Square is complete after two years and a $2 million investment.

On Friday, developer Roy Hubbard opened a trio of ground-level loft-style apartment units at 28 Broad St. as a stop on the Downtown Bangor Artwalk.





“We put all this hard work into it and now we want to show it off,” Hubbard said Friday night as people milled around munching on chicken wings and eyeing artwork mounted on the exposed brick walls of the apartments.

Originally, Hubbard planned to build retail space on the first floor, but based on the success he had filling the 15 upstairs units earlier this year, he decided to stick with residential.

“I was really impressed by the quality tenants we got and the excitement they had about being downtown,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard said he recently started marketing the three new “super luxury” ground floor units, which are larger than the ones upstairs. Rent ranges from $2,200 to $2,500 per month. Most of the tenants are people from out of state who come to Bangor to work at the hospital or pursue a doctorate at the university. Others just want to be downtown.

The site has been largely vacant since the late 1990s, when it briefly housed a coffee shop, cafe and TCBY yogurt shop. Since then, it has occasionally served as temporary headquarters for political campaigns.

In spite of several rounds of rehabilitation to the building’s facade and an overhaul of its roof more than a decade ago, nothing significant happened in terms of development at the building until Hubbard purchased it from its former owner.

The address is the latest long vacant downtown Bangor structure to receive a sorely needed facelift and reuse. After decades of vacancy, the former Merchant’s Bank building across the street opened last year with more luxury apartment units, and Evenrood’s Restaurant on the ground floor.

Follow Nick McCrea on Twitter at @nmccrea213.