Verizon Wireless in Bangor, Maine Expanding Quickly

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The City Council of Bangor, Maine has voted to allow Verizon Wireless to add more parking spaces to its parking lot at the customer service center located on Telcom Drive. There are no plans in the near future for hiring more employees, but the service center has expanded its work force over the past couple of years and the expansion of the parking lot will help solve the company’s parking problems.

“We have about 200 employees currently at that center and we have some parking challenges that we need to alleviate,” said Verizon Wireless spokesman Mike Murphy, according to the Bangor Daily News. “Also, in the future, if we were to expand, it would make sense to have a larger lot for growth. We are filling positions throughout the year, but we have no large-scale hiring plans in the near future.”

A drainage easement was approved this week by the city council for the customer service center, which is located right off of Union Street, which will allow Verizon Wireless to extend its parking lot in the spring.

Stephen Bolduc, the economic development officer for Bangor, said that the proposed expansion for the lot “encroached slightly into the easement area, which they own, but the city has to maintain a drainage way there.”

Without the city’s ability to maintain a drainage way, the city council agreed to reconfigure the area of the easement to allow for the Verizon Wireless parking lot expansion.

“We have plenty of room to allow for proper drainage. We can still get equipment in there to maintain it,” said Bolduc.

Verizon Wireless can now take the next step, which is to acquire approval from the planning board for the redesign and the construction of the parking lot for the company’s Customer Service Center. The plan for the lot is calling for an expansion to 234 spaces from 146 spaces, as announced by Bangor Planning Officer David Gould.

“My understanding is construction won’t start until the spring,” Bolduc said.

The location of the building on Telcom Drive was constructed back in 1997 by Unicel. When the building opened, there were only 43 employees. By April of last year, the company had 198 employees at the location.

“It’s a phenomenal call center for us and one of the highest-performing ones we have nationally,” Murphy said. “They are having fantastic success and we’re tied to the community.”

The project proposal will be reviewed by the planning board on December 20 of this year.

“It will be on our agenda and we’re certainly in favor of that,” said Gould. “We just want to make sure they understand if the use of the building changes, the lot may have to change as well.”