The Gardiner Federal Credit Union is looking to build a new branch less than half a mile away from its current location on Old Brunswick Road.
The move to a new building likely won’t happen for at least a year, according to President and CEO Vicki Larrabee, but last week the city’s Planning Board approved the credit union’s application to construct the new building at the corner of Marston Road and Brunswick Avenue, also called U.S. Route 201.
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A new building with a larger parking lot is needed to better accommodate the employees and members at the credit union, Larrabee said.
“Basically we’ve grown out of this location,” she said in a phone interview last week. “The credit union has continued to grow over the last 10 years with the support of our members, and we’ve just outgrown it, bursting at the seams.”
In the last two years, the credit union has grown from a $35 million institution to $40 million, according to Larrabee.
The project likely won’t be complete for 12 to 18 months, Larrabee said. She doesn’t expect customers to be affected by the move because the credit union will likely close on a Friday at the old location, where it first moved to in the mid-1970s, and open on a Monday at the new one.
Larrabee said the credit union plans to purchase the Brunswick Avenue-Marston Road property but was waiting for the Planning Board approval. The property is currently owned by Hannaford Brothers Co., according to city assessing records. She said the credit union hasn’t yet decided if it will put any restrictions on the current property as part of the sale, such as not allowing any other financial institutions to buy it.
The credit union building, which was built in 1994, will join other buildings around the intersection of Brunswick Avenue and Old Brunswick Road that are currently on the market or will be for sale this year. The most prominent, the Maine Army National Guard armory, is expected to be put up for sale in October.
That section of Route 201 — from the intersection near the armory and credit union to the intersection with Old Brunswick Road near Ainslie’s Market — will be changed by the city to a new land-use zone if changes recommended by the proposed comprehensive plan are enacted.
The zoning change suggested by the plan would create a mixed-use zone to better transition the industrial, commercial nature of outer Brunswick Avenue with the residential neighborhoods farther north toward the downtown. The zone will be similar to the planned development zone now covering most of that area, but commercial uses such as retail, service and light manufacturing would be limited to a maximum of 10,000 square feet per use.
The types of uses allowed in the new zones wouldn’t be different than the current rules, besides the size restriction, but the comprehensive plan encourages the design of development to be more similar to the character of residential areas.
Nate Rudy, director of economic and community development for the city, said there is a potential for some type of retail village to be developed using the available properties around the armory intersection. He said he could see a coffee shop or a restaurant opening in the area, along with other commercial or retail stores and possibly a community center.
“It will be interesting to see what happens there,” Rudy said.
He said the city hopes developers will consider reusing some of the buildings instead of constructing new ones. “It would be unfortunate if those buildings were demolished and built as a strip mall or something. There is a lot of potential for reuse for those buildings,” Rudy said.
John Blais, the director of facility engineering for the Army National Guard, said the 60-year-old readiness center in Gardiner isn’t currently being used, and the furnace has been removed.
“Essentially, it’s about a 1,600-square-foot building that’s not being utilized by the Maine Army National Guard at the moment,” he said.
The 133rd Engineer Battalion, which was based at the Gardiner Armory before being deployed to Afghanistan in August, will move to a readiness center under construction in Brunswick when it returns, according to Maj. Michel Steinbuchel, spokesman for Maine Army National Guard.
The Guard plans to sell the property in October by either going through a broker using the Maine Listing Service or through a bid process, Blais said. The minimum bid would be set at the appraised value of about $230,000, he said.
Paul Koenig — 621-5663
Twitter: @paul_koenig
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