SOUTH PORTLAND – What may be the worst-kept (but still closely guarded) secret in South Portland will enjoy another closed-door meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21, when neighbors will reportedly get to see drawings of what the lot at the corner of Main Street and Thirlmere Avenue will look like when St. John the Evangelist Church is torn down and replaced with a Dunkin’ Donuts.

“We in the neighborhood only just found out a Dunkin’ Donuts is interested in the property, although I guess it’s been known in some places for quite some time,” said Joyce Mendoza, who lives across Thirlmere Avenue from the church, on Monday. “The rumor is that the church will be torn down, but we don’t know for sure what’s true at this point.”

Mendoza said the Nov. 21 meeting is by invitation only and is open only to residents “most impacted” by the development. What will happen, she said, and who will be making the presentations – a Dunkin’ franchise owner, an architect or engineer, a developer, or some other project representative – is unknown.

“We don’t know who will be there, only that it’s someone bringing drawings,” she said.

Assistant City Manager Jon Jennings said in a Nov. 14 interview that he helped facilitate the meeting. He acknowledged that a city employee who claims to have seen the drawings named Dunkin’ Donuts, but he refused to do so himself. The employee asked for anonymity, not being authorized to discuss the matter. Similarly, Jennings declined comment, saying, “The developer is not ready to go public to the press at this time.”

City Manager Jim Gailey said on Nov. 13 that no applications for the project have been submitted to the planning office, although on Monday he acknowledged that councilors were briefed on the potential development at a July 22 executive session.

According to Monsignor Michael Henchal, a purchase and sale agreement was signed in June. Henchal, pastor of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Scarborough, is administrator of the now de-consecrated St. John’s Church for the Roman Catholic Dioceses of Portland.

Henchal, who was unaware of Thursday’s meeting until contacted by the Current Tuesday morning, said he, too, “has heard rumors” about a Dunkin’ Donuts.

“I can tell you the name Dunkin’ Donuts does not appear anywhere in this document,” he said. “But beyond that, all I know really is that the prospective buyer is a corporation that has three-letters as its name I can’t recall what they are right now and that its attorney is in Sanford.”

Henchal said that while he does not know exactly who the buyer is, the purchase and sale agreement forbids any “inappropriate or immoral” use. However, a Dunkin’ Donuts would not cause any great anxiety for the church, he said, the agreement envisioning, say, a strip club or an abortion clinic.

“I stop at Dunkin’ Donuts all the time,” joked Henchal, adding, “But as for the property, what is an appropriate use there is for the city, with its zoning regulations, and for the neighbors, naturally, to decide.”

Henchal said he had hoped to complete the sale in July, but now expects that “it could drag on through the winter.”

“They don’t report to us on their progress, so we’re not really sure where they’re at right now,” he said.

Mayor-elect Gerard Jalbert, who denied knowledge of a potential buyer of the church as recently as last week, did acknowledge the Dunkin’ Donuts proposal prior to Monday’s council meeting. For Jalbert, St. John’s has special meaning, being the site of his confirmation and marriage, the baptism and confirmation of his three children, and the funeral of both of his parents.

“It would break my heart to see it torn down,” he said. “I know it’s just a building, but that building, to me, holds memories.

“But beyond that, I have to put myself in the neighbors’ shoes,” said Jalbert. “Of course they’re concerned. They’re concerned about lights, traffic, noise, and does a Dunkin’ Donuts there devalue their property?”

At Monday’s council meeting, one Thirlmere Avenue resident offered a possible solution, after waiting through three hours of tar-sands talk.

Brian Frost, who said he works in commercial real estate, said a “no-brainer” would be for the city to swap a 2.33-acre vacant lot the city owns at the corner of Main and Westbrook streets with the buyer of the St. John’s property. The city plans to create a park at the corner lot as part of its three-year Thornton Heights makeover due to get under way next spring, but it could just as easily make a park of the St. John’s lot, with or without the building, said Frost. Meanwhile, the swap would also benefit Dunkin’ Donuts, allowing it to expand the adjacent store at 633 Main St. in a more appropriate location.

The owners of record of the 633 Main St. Dunkin’ Donuts are Jean and Tracy Ginn, with a “Dunkin’ Brands” address in Canton, Mass.

“There are no residential properties abutting the lot on Westbrook Street, and it’s much better traffic access,” Frost said. “It’s ideal (for) Dunkin’ Donuts. On Thirlmere, there will be people selling their houses if this happens, and I’ll be the first one.”

“We’re a little concerned this hasn’t been a little more open, so far,” Frost added. “We don’t want to take an adversarial tone this doesn’t need to take, but the city has been very opaque about this.”

Still, 11-year Thirlmere Avenue resident Victoria Morales, said the city should get involved.

“Our neighborhood has in the past had a high turnover rate,” she wrote in an email. “We have an extremely unattractive and unsafe Main Street with a number of undesirable businesses along it. This proposal bringing Dunkin’ Donuts closer to a residential neighborhood we are trying so desperately to protect is in conflict with how we all want our neighborhood to be and to grow.”

Morales urged consideration of Frost’s idea and suggested the City Council conduct a workshop on the possibility of such a land swap. Frost said one unnamed city councilor had promised him he would put in for such a workshop after the Nov. 5 election, but has since stopped returning emails.

However, Mayor Tom Blake promised a workshop on the matter in December after hearing Frost’s idea at Monday’s council meeting.

St. John’s, on Main Street in South Portland, will likely be the site of a new Dunkin’ Donuts. The new property owner is scheduled to meet with neighbors Thursday, Nov. 21.