CALAIS — City Manager Mike Ellis informed the City Council last week that he has received a purchase and sale agreement for the Calais Armory, giving the community another chance to buy the building directly from the Maine National Guard.
The city has pursued the property for several years, hoping to move some municipal services there.
The Guard had the building appraised for a possible sale, but decided late last year to keep it.
In May, however, Monitor Local confirmed that the Guard had submitted a proposal to the Office of the Maine Attorney General to sell the armory to the city.
Ellis asked the City Council for permission to explore financing options by soliciting bids from local banks, which he would bring back to inform further discussion on whether the city should move forward with the purchase.
The asking price is $578,000, slightly more than the $575,000 assessed value the council reviewed in May. The armory underwent extensive renovations in 2016, funded in part by a state bond, to improve “energy efficiency, facility comfort and preparedness,” the National Guard said at the time.
Councilor Michael Sherrard expressed interest in moving forward, but said the purchase is a hard sell given recent tax increases.
“Just because it’s a great deal doesn’t mean you’ve got to buy it,” he said.
At previous meetings, the council had discussed moving most city services to the building to replace their current aging structures.
Sherrard asked Ellis how much it would cost to renovate the armory to make the space adequate for those services.
Ellis said he does not expect the city would need major renovations to put the building to immediate use.
“You could move (the Recreation Department) up there tomorrow,” he said. “You could move the Police Department up there tomorrow. And with a little work, you could move (the city administration) up there.”
Ellis described the status quo as untenable, noting that the Public Works Department is running out of room in its existing building.
Mayor Marcia Rogers agreed, saying the city’s police station is in particularly bad shape.
“It’s a disgrace,” she said. “They need to be out of there.”
The council voted unanimously Thursday to allow Ellis to solicit bids for financing, which he will bring back to the council for discussion. Councilors asked him to consider banks outside Calais to find the most advantageous terms possible.
Reached by telephone later, Ellis agreed that the timing of the Guard’s decision could have been better, with property tax bills having just gone out to residents reflecting an increase of $2 per $1,000 of assessed valuation — a 2‑mill jump.
He said the increase was driven by rising costs for education, insurance, wages and, notably, the county budget crisis, which led the county last fall to ask municipalities to prepay their portion of the 2025 tax anticipation note, or TAN, so it could avoid defaulting on its loan.
“The TAN was something we couldn’t have anticipated or budget for, and then Calais’s county tax share went up again,” Ellis said.
Calais’ bill from the county was $473,279 in 2026, up 25 percent from the previous year.
The county tax varies based on the county’s budget needs and its assessment of property values in Calais.
Though Calais’ county tax share has fluctuated over the past decade, it has increased consistently and significantly every year since 2021, when it was $278,425.
The county financial crisis has only made things worse. The city’s bill from the county for 2027 taxes comes to $925,993, which includes $597,160 for operations and maintenance, plus the 2026 TAN payment.
Energy costs are also up.
“We’re very fortunate in this area to have our own electric co-op,” Ellis said, “and we generally enjoy lower energy costs compared to the rest of the state, but there was an increase this year.”
Given all of that, he said he was not surprised by the pushback at the council meeting, but he remained hopeful the deal would go through, saying it is in the city’s best interests.
“It’s such a great opportunity,” Ellis said. “Pretty wide open space, right in the middle of everything, would be good for response times and for the walking public, too.”
He added, “We’ve got a charming, ancient building” in Calais City Hall, but in winter, “the breeze just comes right in through the windows.”
In 2023, Moore presented a bill, L.D. 1987, cosponsored by Rep. Anne Perry, D‑Calais, authorizing the adjutant general to sell the armory. The bill passed, and late last year Moore wrote to the Joint Standing Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs in support of the city’s purchase of the building.
At the end of 2025, the Guard announced it would keep the armory, citing possible changes in how units might be assigned across the Maine National Guard.
At the time, Maj. Nick Erickson, the acting state public affairs officer, told Monitor Local that the Maine National Guard planned to retain the armory “in case our force structure throughout the state changes in the coming years.”
Months later, the Guard reversed course again and offered it to the city for purchase. Construction of the Calais Armory was completed in 1956 at a cost of $197,000, “including all equipment and furnishings,” according to Bangor Daily News coverage at the time. Three‑quarters of the cost was covered by the federal government, with the state of Maine and the city of Calais covering the rest.
The first unit stationed in the Calais Armory was Battery C of the 314th AAA AW Battalion, which brought about $2 million worth of anti‑aircraft weaponry and equipment.
Over the armory’s 70‑year history, a variety of units have been based there, and Detachment 2 of the 1136th Transportation Co. has been stationed there since 2007.
Like many National Guard armories in Maine, the Calais Armory served as a multiuse space — used for Guard drill practice and equipment storage, and also hosting dances, Rotary Club and Oddfellows meetings, and community auctions. Calais schools used rooms there for classes in the 1970s while the new high school was being built.
More recently, the armory has been available to rent as an event space, and a Maine National Guard recruiter has an office there.
The Maine National Guard did not respond to a request for comment.
