By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – City officials got the go-ahead Tuesday to buy the failing Ritz Cafe building at 39 Maple St. and knock it down.

The building should come down later this summer, according to Jim Andrews, economic and community development director. It is currently occupied by the Ritz Cafe, a downtown bar; Patty’s Place, a ceramics shop; and six people living in the 10 apartment units.

“We had a willing seller, and that made the difference,” Andrews said. Councilors voted to let city staff buy the building for $275,000 from Roland Doucette. Andrews said he would work with all of the tenants in the apartments to find new places to live.

Doucette would simply close the bar and Patty’s Place.

The building was included in Lewiston’s Heritage Initiative, a plan that was announced a year ago. It called for razing the Ritz Cafe building, putting a boulevard through the area and building an office for Community Concepts there.

Neighbors and community activists opposed the boulevard idea, however, saying it would ruin any chance of salvaging the area and would hurt downtown dwellers.

Community Concepts signed a deal earlier this month to put its new office complex on the site of the old St. Dominic’s Regional High School along Bates Street, and the city shelved plans for the boulevard.

“But we were still interested in seeing something happen with that property,” Andrews said.

The building had numerous building and fire code violations. The city closed six of the apartment units last week because of a lack of smoke detectors, according Code Enforcement Director Gil Arsenault. The city has also closed the balcony and front porches on the building, saying they are unsafe structurally.

Andrews said the city does not have a specific plan for the lot. It could be used for green space or parking, he said.

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