LEWISTON  — A Boston demolition team could begin preparing to knock down the Bates Mill building No. 5 in March.

The city and demolition firm North American Site Developers Inc. of Boston will get an additional 60 days to work out the financial details for the demolition project.

The firm had the low bid on the demolition of the iconic sawtooth-roofed building that looms over downtown, agreeing to knock it down, remove all asbestos and back-fill the site for $782,000.

The city was scheduled to finalize the agreement by Nov. 17, but the company has agreed the give the city until January to confirm the bid and work out the financial arrangements.

"We can't finalize the bid until we have final approval from the council and we are sure the money is there," said Norm Beauparlant, Lewiston's director of budgeting and purchasing.

Beauparlant said he hopes to bring the bid to councilors in December. If they approve, the company would begin site-work as soon as the weather permitted in March. They'd be finished in five months.

It's a much bigger project than previous demolitions, Beauparlant said. The building is low to the ground, but covers a wide area. It has more
than 350,000 square feet of usable space inside, though little
wood was used in construction.

The work will have to proceed around a hydroelectric plant on the southern edge of the site. That facility is owned by Florida Power and Light and is being preserved, Beauparlant said.

"But they are planning to devote three whole demolition units, versus the single units the other companies were bringing," Beauparlant said. That means that the company will have three boom excavators at at time picking apart the building.

"They said, time is money, and they want to get it done," Beauparlant said.

Demolition crews will also have to work around construction crews building a new 350 space parking garage along Lincoln Street. The city began taking construction bids for that project Monday, and hopes to begin work on that in March as well.

"They are two different sites, and the crews will have room to work around each other," Beauparlant said. "But it could lead to some traffic around the area."

The building was designed by industrial architect Albert Kahn and opened in 1914. The top floor, immediately under the distinctive saw-tooth roof, housed as many as 300 Jacquard looms during the Bates Co.'s heyday.

staylor@sunjournal.com