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The new owners of a nearly 60-year-old boarding house near downtown Orono want to tear it down and build new office space for 100 employees.
Texas-based Tyler Technologies wants to demolish the University on College Street to make way for a new office building on the property, according to the company’s filing with the city.
It closed last December after 57 years in business after the university was sold to Tyler Technologies, which provides software to the public sector.
The updated plan for the property is in line with the original plan from when the technology company purchased the property, and he said he wanted to convert the hotel into office space for up to 75 employees.
The proposed new office building will provide workplaces for 100 employees and student interns, according to the company’s application. Designs for the office indicate it will be less than 15,000 square feet and have about 69 parking spaces.
The company chose the site because of its “proximity to the University of Maine and opportunities for research integration,” according to representative Jeffrey T. Aceto said in an application submitted by SMRT Architects and Engineers to the Orono Planning Board.
The new building will sit on the existing footprint of the former guest house. It offers staff a balcony overlooking the Stillwater River. A walking trail would span the roughly four acres the property occupies, according to project renderings.
Before demolition can begin, a permit must be obtained from the city to change the zoning of the land.
Tyler Technologies is seeking a compact zoning agreement, which is separate from the city changing the zoning where the parcel is located, Town Planner Kyle Drexler said.
Currently, the inn is considered legally unacceptable because it is a commercial operation located in the city’s medium-density residential zone. If the Planning Board and City Council approve the compact zoning agreement, the property will become part of the village commercial zone and the building will conform to the zone’s uses, Drexler said.
Instead of changing the property’s zoning entirely, the agreement allows the city to put additional safeguards and conditions in place to ensure that the property’s use and future use does not cause problems for surrounding areas, he said.
In addition to the overall zoning changes, Drexler said the city’s Planning Board must approve the comprehensive site plan associated with the project. Both items will come before the Planning Board at their meeting Wednesday night.
In announcing the purchase of the building, the company said about 40 employees who work in its Bangor office will move to the new Orono location. Tyler Technologies has approximately 1,200 employees between its offices in Bangor, Falmouth and Yarmouth, Maine.
If approved, the company plans to start construction in the winter of 2023, and the work will last about 14 months.
Tyler Technologies did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.
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