LEWISTON — The group hoping to save the iconic Bates Mill No. 5 from demolition will unveil new details of its plan to city councilors during a closed door meeting Tuesday night.
A plan from local group Grow L+A that would break up the Bates Mill Building No. 5 into a number of different uses, including retail, residential, light industrial and community space, shows in this diagram from their brochure. The group is meeting with Lewiston city councilors in a executive session Tuesday night.
Peter Flanders, a member of Grow L+A, said the group's Five-2-Farm plan has picked up four unnamed Maine investors who might be interested in helping to renovate the aging sawtooth-roofed building if the city doesn't tear it down.
"They have expressed different levels of interest, and they've all given us a list of things that if we can put it together, these groups would be interested in making this project happen," Flanders said. "But we really need (the council's) nod of approval in order to take it to the next step. From the investors' standpoint, they say, 'Isn't that building coming down?'"
Members of Grow L+A are scheduled to meet with city councilors and Mayor Robert Macdonald in an executive session at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Lewiston City Hall.
"If we are asking for anything, it's for time," Flanders said. "We're asking for a timeline."
The building at Main and Lincoln streets was designed by architect Albert Kahn, a renowned American industrial designer, and is one of the first to use reinforced concrete. It has two floors, each covering 145,000 square feet, and its own hydroelectrical generation facility in the basement. Construction began in 1912 and wrapped up early in 1914.
The city has owned the building since 1992 and it's been used as storage since 1999. Councilors planned to demolish the building in 2010 but delayed. Last summer's Riverfront Island Master Plan recommended demolishing it and redeveloping the space as a park or business area.
A Rhode Island architect made the building his senior thesis in 2011. Architect James Mangrum proposed two uses for the building: A server farm in the basement and an indoor greenhouse on the top floor. It caught the interest of local architects and developers, who formed Grow L+A around the idea.
But Flanders said the idea now includes more than two uses. Flanders imagines the space used for retail, light industrial uses, food processing, a year-round farmers market, community space and loft-style apartments.
"The question has always come up, how do you redevelop a building that large," Flanders said. "The answer is, you break it into pieces and you work at those pieces. When you put them back together, you have a new, bigger whole."
The group would like to secure ownership of the building this year — either themselves or with the unnamed investors. They'd begin renovating and reopen it in 2014 — 100 years after it was first built.
But they need to convince the council, and the council has already come down in favor of doing away with it. Councilors have agreed to put aside $2.5 million in bonds toward the demolition in their capital plan. City Administrator Ed Barrett said the bond sale won't be official until a council vote in May or June.
"It's been my impression, talking with the councilors, that they would like something done or some decision made while they are still in office," Barrett said.
He said the private ownership of the canals that run alongside and through the building and the hydroelectrical generating facility in its basement make things more complicated.
The building is owned by the city, but FPL Energy Maine Hydro/Next Era Energy has contracted to sell their share of the canals and generating equipment and rights to Toronto-based Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners. That's part of a larger $700 million transfer of hydrogenerating assets in Maine and New Hampshire.
The city was negotiating a deal to take over the canals and Mill No. 5 equipment last year, but it evaporated last June.
"So once that sale happens, we can continue to have discussions with the owners," Barrett said.
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The Gateway
As much as I admire the work that has been put into some of our old mills already, I can't help but think that mill #5 is too much of a project. It stands at the gateway to our city and is the first thing anybody sees when they cross the bridge into Lewiston. If it is rehabed it needs to be done right or not at all. I would rather see new construction or a nice park than a half baked job that didn't get finished because the funding ran out.
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You may of heard of Norway's "Gingerbread House". I'm sure it was a grand old place in it's hayday.A year and a half ago it was moved from it's somewhat oblivious position to a new location. It is now at the western entrance to Norway. Showing it's past fifty odd years of neglect. In the past year and a half the foundation has been built under it. Nothing else.
Norway has a group of very concerned citizens that truly want to save the derelict old place. However one thing holds them up. Funding to do the job in a timely matter.
While is is such a nice thought wanting to preserve history, it takes money and plenty of it. Just ask anyone that owns an antique car. They will tell you they could have bought a brand new set of wheels for what it cost to restore an old car.
If they really want to ave the old albitros know as Bates Mill no 5 put the money up front now. If and pledges do not go anywhere when trying to restore anything.
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I've been all through that building in the years it was used for warehousing. I'll admit it was a great building for the purpose of its construction. It worked great for as a warehouse. I can't see, even with renovation, how that space can be transformed into usable retail space, or a mall type atmosphere, at any cost.
It's an old building, with old building problems a lot of them. These are problems a coat of paint, or sheet rock and plaster, won't fix.
To me, the buildings only redeeming feature is it's historical value. It might be a great place for a museum, but that won't pay the bills. The land is valuable, the building is not. I feel new modern construction on the site will greatly improve the value of the realestate. Thus increasing the tax value to the city. It's time to let the building go, They could erect a huge memorial in its honor on the site, with the history and photographs. I say let it go, concentrate on building buildings to serve business, not find businesses to fit the building......
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On the one hand, there is this dinosaur of a building, with maintenance costs, paid for with tax dollars, and little or no return on that dollar. Then there are some who say we can make a go of it with this building. If they can, then they should get started, or at the very least, take over the repair and maintenance costs immediately. Otherwise, unload this dinosaur and tear it down, freeing up the land for anything else.
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