AUBURN – Bangor Savings Bank expects to open its 44th branch in a new office building slated to overlook Great Falls.

The bank plans to occupy about 5,000 square feet of a new office building proposed by Platz Associates.

David Perkins, senior vice president of retail banking for Bangor Savings, said he met Wednesday with Tom Platz in the latest in a series of discussions over the past year.

“I’d say the plan for the Great Falls plaza is a go,” Perkins said. He said plans were expected to be submitted to the Planning Board within a month.

Although some of the details are still being worked out, the bank is planning to open a retail banking center by September 2005. It will include an ATM and drive-up service on the first floor of the multi-story building. Perkins said he understood that Platz had also lined up other tenants.

“We’re excited to go into it with them,” Perkins said.

Platz had developed plans to build a complex of office buildings over Great Falls as part of the city’s downtown redevelopment proposal. The office buildings were considered at the same time developer Lee Griswold announced plans to site an upscale hotel in the same area in early 2000. Calls placed to Platz Associates for details on the project weren’t returned by deadline.

The Auburn branch is the latest development in the expansion of Bangor Savings Bank. The bank opened a business operations center on Main Street in Lewiston in early April.

It plans to consolidate two separate operations in Portland into a new building on Fore Street that will open in January of 2005. The bank is also considering new branches in areas between Lewiston and Portland that aren’t currently served.

“We’re looking at creating more depth in that vicinity,” said Perkins.

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