NORWAY – Construction could begin as early as next summer on roads, sewer and power for the Norway Office Park overlooking Norway Lake.

Brett Doney, president of Western Maine Development, said the Economic Development Administration’s office in Washington this week approved $2 million in grants for the park.

The approval won’t be final until engineering and environmental reviews are completed over the next few months, but Doney said, “We are confident that once we dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s, we’ll get the final award.”

Doney said EDA grants have become much more competitive since the last EDA award in the region, which was for $900,000 to build a hangar expansion at the Oxford County Regional Airport.

“The standard you have to set is much higher,” he said. Doney says he thinks the office park grant was successful because it involved a regional partnership of towns willing to work together.

The towns of Norway, Paris, Oxford, Waterford, Harrison and Otisfield have joined the Technology Park Development Corp. Otisfield alone has committed $700,000 through its tax increment financing program to fund development of the park.

The $2 million EDA grant will help to pay for construction of a road leading into the park, advanced telecommunications and electrical systems, a fire protection safety system and storm water management improvements. The total cost to develop the 161-acre park is estimated at $3.3 million.

Doney said it remains to be seen what future investment will be sought from the towns.

“We’re working on a final budget and tying in all the costs,” he said.

Each town will benefit from a tax revenue sharing agreement, based on how much they’ve invested in the park, he said. “That’s one of the beauties of the project; we’ve left it as a free-market approach.”

He said other Oxford Hills towns, including West Paris and Hebron, and perhaps others will be asked if they want to join the project, which organizers hope will create up to 500 high-paying jobs over the next 10 years.