City officials say the business expansion will enhance the project.
By Lisa Chmelecki
Staff writer

LEWISTON – City officials announced Friday that a local business is expanding and moving to the portion of lower Lisbon Street known as the city’s southern gateway.

The name of the business will remain unknown until Monday, when the owner and city officials gather at Lewiston City Hall for an 11 a.m. press conference.

Assistant City Administrator Greg Mitchell would say only that newest addition is an existing business that wishes to expand.

He would not say whether it is moving into an existing building or if the project would require construction of a new building.

The announcement will come exactly two weeks after Andover College, a Portland-based business school, announced its plans to take over the former Good Shephard Food-Bank warehouse.

The former warehouse is located in the heart of the gateway, next to the new Oxford Networks building.

“We’re pleased to be able to attract new, private-sector investment to the area,” Mitchell said Friday.

Although the business that is relocating to Lisbon Street wasn’t planned as part of the city’s effort to clean up its southern gateway, it will certainly enhance the project, Mitchell said.

City and business leaders unveiled their plan to revamp the gateway in May.

Since then, the buildings on either side of the food-bank warehouse were torn down, and the Oxford Networks office building was constructed. Oxford Networks also built a switching station for a fiber-optic cable network just north of the site and installed a 28-foot-wide satellite dish on top of the Pontiac Building.

“Come see what’s next,” city officials wrote in their announcement about Monday’s press conference.

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com

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