BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The building that once housed Maine Jump on Hogan Road in Bangor is going to become part of Eastern Maine Community College.
Maine Jump vacated the property more than a year ago and it has sat empty ever since.
The college actually used to own that land until the late 80's.
That's when a land swap was done so EMCC could acquire different land where the Range-lee hall building sits now.
The more than two-and-a-half acres on the site will be redesigned so the building no longer has a driveway onto Hogan Road. Instead, it will be directly connected to the EMCC campus and have expanded parking.
Officials for the community college said the acquisition has a lot of pluses for the college because it does a lot for little money.
"We're bringing an additional capital of a million dollars here in Bangor that wasn't part of our bond funding," said Dan Belyea, EMCC's Director of Administrative Services. "We'll save taxpayer dollars by not attempting to build a brand new stand-alone building."
In a 5-1 vote last night, the Bangor City Council approved rezoning the land on 312 Hogan Rd., which allows EMMC to repurpose the building as a tax-exempt educational facility.
"As we try to draw younger people here and grow the economy we really want to build around things that we do well and education's one of those things in this region," said City Councilor Ben Sprague.
The sole opposing vote was cast by City Councilor Pauline Civiello, who thinks the benefits of expanding EMCC do not outweigh the lost potential tax revenue from a business occupying the site. She said the city already has a lot of tax-exempt land and EMCC could have offered to make up for some of Bangor's financial loss.
"The school could have offered to pay full property taxes even though they're exempt," she said.
"I didn't hear them offer and I really didn't hear anyone ask."
Belyea said construction on the new facility is expected to begin in May of this year with a target completion date of January 2016.
