LEWISTON — A developer has plans to turn part of Bates Mill No. 2 into a apartment complex complete with 52 units, Wi-Fi, a fitness room, a media room, heated storage and a common area with computers.
Artist rendering of Bates Mill No. 2 provided by Maine Workforce Housing.
Artist rendering of Bates Mill No. 2 provided by Maine Workforce Housing.
Eighteen of the apartments will be one-bedroom units rented at market rate, or about $640 a month including heat, hot water and a parking spot. The remaining 34 apartments will be one-, two- and three-bedroom units reserved for low-income renters.
The developer, Portland-based Maine Workforce Housing, is working to secure financing. It hopes to start construction next summer and open in early 2012. It is calling the project The Lofts at Bates Mill.
This will be the first residential project for any mill in Lewiston.
"I think it has the potential to really have a strong positive impact on the downtown, to bring more people downtown," said housing developer Nathan Szanton. "Living close to the shops and restaurants and public amenities, banks and the post office and library, all the things that the downtown has to offer, will help drive the redevelopment and spur the continued redevelopment of the Bates Mill complex. And, hopefully, other mills in Lewiston as well. We hope this could be a model that others could follow to bring housing to the mills."
Bates Mill No. 2 is between the buildings that house TD Bank and DaVinci's Eatery. Maine Workforce Housing said it plans to buy 40 percent of Bates Mill No. 2 from Tom Platz and his Bates Mill LLC. The apartment complex will occupy the back half of the building, with apartments overlooking the courtyard fountain. The apartments will also feature 12-and-a-half foot ceilings, exposed timber framing and large windows.
"The units are going to be fabulous. I'm really excited about the units," Szanton said. "They are going to have a lot of character."
The complex will offer various amenities, including wireless Internet access, a media screening room free for tenants' use, a laundry room, a fitness area, heated self-storage and a community room with computers. Parking will be offered at a nearby parking garage as part of the rent.
Maine Workforce Housing is working on a similar project in Biddeford, where it's converting a 165-year-old mill building into The Mill at Saco Falls, a 66-unit apartment complex with a solar-powered hot water system, indoor bike storage, outdoor kayak storage and a playground.
"We wanted to find another mill building we could do the same thing to, to kind of breathe new life into a building that had been underutilized and sitting empty," Szanton said. "It's really fun to kind of give a new breath of life and vitality to an old building that has a lot of potential but is just waiting for someone to come along and kind of help it realize that potential. That's what we love to do."
Lincoln Jeffers, who heads economic development for the city, said he was delighted that Szanton wanted to do a project in Lewiston. He believes it will help the area's revitalization efforts.
"The one piece of the puzzle that's been missing is having more folks living downtown," Jeffers said. "Nationally, Bates Mill is pretty unique without the housing. Most mill redevelopment projects throughout New England and in the South generally do have a housing component. So this is sort of coming back to that model."
Another group has proposed putting a casino in nearby Bates Mill No. 5. Szanton said he hasn't thought a lot about that proposal and any impact a casino that might have on The Lofts at Bates Mill.
Szanton plans to send out invitations next week inviting neighbors to meet with Maine Workforce Housing to discuss his project. That meeting has been scheduled for 5:15 p.m. on June 16 at DaVinci's.
Maine Workforce Housing also will meet with Lewiston's Historic Preservation Review Board and the Planning Board this summer. Jeffers plans to present the project to the City Council and discuss any assistance the city may want to provide to the developer.
In order to qualify for the 34 apartments reserved for low-income families, renters must earn 50 percent or less than the median income for the area. For one person, that currently means an annual income of $19,500 or less. Those apartments will rent for about $483 a month for a one-bedroom, $577 a month for a two-bedroom and $665 a month for a three-bedroom, all including heat, hot water and a parking space. The developer is working to get Section 8 vouchers for 13 of those units.
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While I like the idea of
While I like the idea of making part of the mill into apartments I do not agree with low-income apartments. Lewiston is a haven for those low-income renters which isn't exactly a bad thing, but it isn't exactly a good thing either. A lot of up scales businesses will not do business in Lewiston because the fact that a large majority of the people are low-income and can't afford time to leisure or don't have money to spend to buy high quality items. I am not bashing on those with low-income because some of my family members are these exact people and I see how it is. If anything they should have though about turning into condo type apartments. Lastly the city, Platz and the investor should have asked the other members of the Bates Mill community on their outlook of this idea. Also section 8 or those on welfare shouldn't be allowed to live there, a "community" room, free internet, etc... that would really make me want to get off welfare.
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I do agree with most of the comments about the project. I like the idea of the apts.
just not the FAMILY type apts. In my opinion the community and the developement of the
mill would be better served by turning them into ADULT LIVING type apts. Emty nesters if
you will. People who probbably are still working but close to retirement, some possibly
retired. The kids are gone and now it's time for them to enjoy life without maintaing the
responseabilty of a home anymore. They can come and go as they please knowing their
home is secure. All the amenities are there at their disposal with no worries. I personally
think this would be a huge draw to alot of folks in this age bracket. My husband and I
live on the outskirts of Aub. and we keep hoping somone will put a place like this in place
downtown. The last place we want to be is a complex where there are kids all over the
place and thats what's available now or it's elderly housing. We are not there yet either.
This would eleminate alot of the concerns I read in the previous comments and would
be less of a risk for the investers private, state, and federal. The price range of $650 to
$850 is"in my opinion only" is an appealing range for people looking for this kind of lifestyle. Also instead of looking at putting in 3 bedroom apts. they would be only 2 bdr.
apts. with maybe 1200 to 1500 sq. ft. of living space which is nice size for 2 people. So
that would allow the developer to put in more apts. Seems like a winning idea to me.
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is the Developer will get tax credits and other grants to develop the property, as long as it has a minimum percentage of low-income units that it rents. Tron was mistaken in his statement above. The developer will not be allowed to rent all the units to "market rent" tenants that he wants to, or it would jeopardize the funding of the project. And the Developer has to provide reports each year to the government to keep proving enough rentals are in the low income status.
To support a lot of the above mentioned points, mixed income housing usually does not work. It sounds warm and fuzzy to talk about, but at the end of the day, it has already been proven by other failed development projects that it is a very difficult project to make work.
The most frustrating thing to watch happen is the City of Lewiston react like they are so desperate for an economic development project, any project, that they fail to envision how a proposed project like this will fit into the big picture of mill development. We need workforce housing, not welfare housing, and we need it now!
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... payout to terminate a city administrator ($100K), ... payout to a contract to not tear down Mill 5 ($60K) ...
payout for another unused parking garage ($3.5M)... payout to maintain Mill 5 ($60K).... payout to
the business park infrastructure ($300K)... read the budget / balance sheet and weep.
Way too many inside deals and closed government.
And I wonder who the architect for this new Mill 2 project will be? Could it be the same architect that the City is building the parking garage for?
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Here Lewiston is so POOR ........ To ask for more . NUT 'S
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Lewiston continues to be the low income and welfare housing warehouse center of Maine. No good can come of this. Another use of Federal and State subsidies to continue a downward spiral. I wonder what TD Bank, Da Vincis, Baxter Brewing, and potential Mill 5 investors think of this. Can't the City find real investors? Every idea for development has soft money tied to it. A few months ago the City stopped tearing down Mill 5 because it was 'historic' and 50% of the restoration was possible with Federal money. Show me the money. Meanwhile
our City continues to pump hard money into the fabled Gendron business park....Taxes went up and jobs lost in the City while the business park continues to be 'built'. What is return on the taxpayer investment?
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Hey, I'm the most liberal person on here, and I would not rent in a building where Section 8 is allowed. I lived on Wood Street for 11 years while saving up for my house, and my building had only working people or retirees who paid full price in cash. My landlord was able to charge the cheapest rents in town, because he knew the tenants would not be trashing the place.
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alot of folks around here, totally elitist with misconceptions about people. Apparently you believe these landlord will allow anyone into those apartments without doing due diligence first.
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It would appear that that is what happened with you tron when you moved into the Roak Block.
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in the Roak Block. Guess booby gave you the wrong information. Are you one of his "special" scouts?
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renting the other apartments for market rent if they want to. The subsidies will only kick in if a person is not capable of affording the rent. But they way things work, if people want to pay the total price, they're allowed to.
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Umm since you couldnt figure it out for yourself let me simplify things for you. Noone who can afford the rent will want to live there with the section 8 neighbors. They dont want to live in the hood and spend theyre hard earned money to do so .. They will go live somewhere that they dont have to deal with that element. Though not all section 8 renters fall into the hoodlum category, as a renter you would have no say in who moves in next door, therefor the paying tenants will not want to take the chance (with theyre hard earned money) of winding up in the apartment next door to the gangstah wannabees.. Hope this helps you GET IT..
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again, i agree
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I understand the need to redevelop the bates mill and get as many tax breaks or federal grants as possible. However the section 8 idea is not the right way to draw working people into our community to stimulate our local community. No one is going to want to live next door or down the hall from section 8 tenants. Look around the city. the section 8 housing is or is quickly becoming run down due to the fact that a large population of the section 8 community just dont care about where they live and wouldnt take care of it. I for one wouldnt want to pay my hard earned money to live next to the local hoodlums so that i can listen to the loud music through the walls and have constant disputed between tenants who differ in lifestyles that are not condusive to each other.. Not to mention 1 media room for the whole building? How many times will the police be called for fights that result from the use of this media room. Not everyone can be reasonable and get along with the neighbors.This is proven in the local police log on a weekly basis. The goal here should be to draw working, tax paying tenants to the community and offer secure executive suites that have the appeal to draw a fair and decent rent. These are the people who will cotribute to our local economy and increase city revenue and quite possibly fix the budget shortfall currently going on.. The working tax paying people in this community cannot afford to be fleeced any more than we already have. This is a bad idea.. Build it YES..Section 8 NO..
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Come on folks, don't you know how this works..the developer goes to the city and state and says we'll do some as low inccome and the rest at market rates...then somewhere as they fill the building they realize that many people don;t want to live in a place that also has subsidized housing - either because of fear of being branded as oone of the welfare elite, or simply because of the some of the people this attracts who have no sense of respect or care for a community. A few bad pennies in subsidized housing can ruin it for many more - not saying its all of them but a few just look for what they can get and really dont care if their kids or boyfriends do any damage to the place...lets face it thats what everyone is afraid to say and what the liberals will show up on this post and accuse me of being a racist because I said it (note I never mentioned any specific race, its the welfare class regardless of race). SO anyone, at some point the owner will go back to the state and say whoa is me I can;t rent the regular apartments and I need them all subsidized or Im going belly up and filing bankruptcy. The city and then state will then fight to be first in line to help this poor developer who made an error that NO One could have seen (yeah right)...
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i despise the fact that some talk about ALL low-income families/people as a league of their own and fully capable to work. there are many elderly, handicapped, or people with mental-health issues and they are entitled to nice homes too. there are people that work paycheck to paycheck with minimum wage. also the economy... no one takes that into consideration and they make it sound like they have 100k or more in the bank. come on. i don't know why so many people lack compassion for others.
i think more of the problem stems down to lewiston and landlords... if they are taking care of their buildings/property people are more apt to take care of their property/home/where they live... this goes for low-income-everyone. it also takes a community effort to make the streets look clean-but most people will sit back waiting for the next person to do it... essentially it will not getting it done... if the apt buildings/property are being cared for, people are more apt to take care of it-its a known fact.
my biggest concern is the asbestos... the mill is one huge, massive building. if they're taking a section for apts-yes that may be cleared of asbestos... but what about the rest of the building?
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Not to defend the slumlords out there(because we all know there are some). But there are a lot of hard working landlords that try to take care of they're property. The real problem is the quality of tenants drawn to section 8. While not all fall into the stereotype depicted the fact is that a large portion of them do. And as a section 8 renter i would have no control over who moves in next door to me. These people you call for to take responsability for and care for theyre community to fix the problem sounds real good when you read it from the paper, however are you going to bust your arse to go out and beautify your neighborhood so that as soon as your done your neighbors can ruin it. Look around , its been tried in many places and effort were futile once the noncaring neighbors had the chance to destroy it..example .... Knox street.... looks like crap now. Looked good after it was redone some years ago, but take a walk through one of those buildings now.Judge for yourself. If you would like to rally the other bleeding hearts from the community you should try to organize a downtown rebeautification commitee to go out and rally the landlords and tenants to take responsability for theyre neighborhoods like you say they should.. Put YOUR time and money where your mouth is .. Instead of chastizing those who have already spent the time and money to no avail..
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ahh-it is a very great idea and i've been putting some thought into it for quite a while now. i've already figured a way how to do it, where to start, etc. the issues that i am dealing with and facing at this moment is getting to lewiston, because i live quite far away. other than that i am hopeful to make a change-a difference-hopefully very, very soon. its just unfortunate to think that another day has to go by... without anyone doing it... or without me being able to make it to lewiston.
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Well, THAT will encourage section 8 folks to get off the dole....media room, wi-fi, computers. Sure wish I could afford that stuff, but my 2 jobs don't pay enough. Do the loca restaurants take EBT, 'cuz with all those goodies, those folks won't WANT to look for a job.
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LMFAO
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Ok, I think this is great for the area, a nice looking apartment complex, until I read -and the rest for low income housing". What????? I thought the artist's conception looked really nice and classy and I would love to live in a place like that, till they mentioned low income, which means section 8, which means more of "the other clan" taking over like the rest of Lisbon st. I for once would like to live in a nice looking building. I pay more than over the top for my rent now, but if you have section 8, its easier to get the good places because the owners can jack up the price and charge almost what ever they want. I don't qualify for anything. I'm one of those who makes to much but not enough. I presently live in a very nice 3 bedroom that is more than I can afford but I do it to keep my family in a decent place. Wi-fi, gym? bring it on. But I guess I can't live there cuz I need 3 bedrooms and I dont qualify for sections 8. Thumbs down for me.
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Tell me who would rent at or above market rate in the same building as 34 low income apartments?!
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NOT ME!
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I love the idea of apartments, but not “low-income” apartments. The building will turn into what the rest of Downtown Lewiston has turned into…
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I applaud anyone willing to redevelop the mills. They need to be saved and put to good use. However, I think the developer needs to do some more homework first. Why make the majority of the apartments low income housing, when low income tenants will be the least likely to utilize the shopping and employment opportunities located in the mills. The new housing should be workforce housing to start some economic diversity of the area. People who want to live close to where they work, to eliminate commuting expenses. Instead, this Developer and the City Economic Development Dept just want to add another low income housing project to a downtown that is already mostly low income. In addition, there is an unfortunate epidemic blowing through the low income housing right now. Bed Bugs. Would you want your work office or your restaurant sharing a common wall with the low income apartments. I know I wouldn't.
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exactly!!!!
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We do not need low income welfare housing that will be paid for by the working peoples of this area. Tear that ugly blight down. Move forward. Bring that area into the present where we can create some jobs for those low income folks. Why do we always seek to "help" the lower income individuals instead of allowing them the chance to help themselves with better paying jobs?
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I AM SO PROUD OF THEASE PEOPLE WHO SAVE OLD PLACES .WAY TO MANY ARE TORN DOWN.GOD BLESS YU ALL SAVE MORE PAST.
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