The grant will go toward renovating the former Odd Fellows building.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

NORWAY – Enterprise Maine announced a second, major grant award Wednesday to benefit economic growth in the Oxford Hills.

A $500,000 grant from the state’s Municipal Investment Trust Fund has been awarded to the agency toward a $1.132 million rehabilitation of the former Odd Fellows building at 201 Main St.

Two weeks ago, Enterprise Maine announced it had been awarded $235,000 from the same trust fund toward development of an industrial park on Route 25 in Oxford.

Enterprise Maine plans to borrow $632,000 to help pay for the needed changes to the Odd Fellows building, which it purchased last year for $60,000 from the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 16.

Renovations to the building will include restoring its historic facade, replacing mechanical and electrical systems, installing an elevator, creating outside stairs, and providing parking, stormwater management and a new roof membrane.

The vacant brick building is in the Downtown Historic District next to the Opera House.

Enterprise Maine staff plan to relocate their offices from Paris to the Odd Fellows building. They’ll be on the second floor and the rear part of the third floor. The space would house all Enterprise Maine operations: Western Maine Development, the Growth Council of Oxford Hills and Western Maine Finance.

The location would be known as the Western Maine Enterprise Center, “a regional one-stop resource for entrepreneurs, business and community development,” the grant application states.

Preparing for tenants

Improvements would be made to attract one or more tenants to the first floor, which has approximately 3,000 square feet of retail space. Space will also be available for rent on the front part of the third floor.

There have been discussions of moving the Maine Discoveries store – an Enterprise Maine business – to the Odd Fellows building. Its next to the New Balance store now.

Brett Doney, Enterprise Maine chief executive officer, said other options are being explored, including a restaurant business.

The first floor of the building, once home to The Little Jungle Pet Store, was built in 1894. The additional stories were added in 1911. The second floor used to house the district courthouse and law offices, while the third floor was reserved for members of the Odd Fellows.

The project is ready to be put out to bid this winter, with construction expected to be complete by the end of 2004.

In addition to the Odd Fellows building, Enterprise Maine’s Western Maine Development also owns the New Balance/Maine Discoveries building, which it renovated from its former life as a JJ Newberry’s department store. Last month, Enterprise Maine purchased the C.B. Cummings & Son mill property next to the Opera House on Water Street.

Working in partnership with Downtown Norway Revitalization and the town, Enterprise Maine is applying for a $400,000 grant to redevelop the mill property.

The Oxford Industrial Park and the Odd Fellows building projects are two of 33 applications that received more than $10 million in funding under the state’s new Municipal Investment Trust Fund program. Money for the program comes from state bond issues, the most recent being $6 million added in June.

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