A fixture in Bangor's history...

I first moved away from Bangor in 1993. Until then, I'd lived my whole life right in the area. So Saliba's Rug Cleaning down on Pleasant Street had been a fixture on the waterfront my entire life. But we all know it'd been there for decades before that. Believe it or not, the Saliba's were only the second owners of the building, since the 1870s.

Recently, according to MaineBiz.com, the rug cleaning dynasty had moved over onto Broadway, near the Broadway Shopping Center. When the building went up for sale, it was snatched up by a Bangor native, Robert Ervin, who is an architect, as well as founder and president of Ervin Architecture.

Location, location, location.

There are some pretty big plans in store for the building. First off, it would seem they'd like to make the most of the spot. It sits right across from the mighty Penobscot River, so they'd like to take advantage of the scenery and maximize it. There will be a restaurant on the ground level and extensive renovations to the upper floors.

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Above, there will be luxury apartments. There are even plans to add a fourth floor to the building, presumably to soak up as much of those river views as possible. They've also removed much of the building's outer layer, which was covered up with stucco tears and years ago. It looks like it will be restored to its original brick charm.

There's lots more to be done.

All the demo work has already begun, and the building is in the process of being gutted inside and out. The whole project is costing about $2 million and should be completed in the fall of 2022. It will be exciting to have some new life on the waterfront. There's more work being done down there all the time. Bangor's working on a new face, and it's nice.

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