By Carol Coultas,Business Writer

LEWISTON – A year after a fire destroyed Marco’s restaurant, work is under way to restore separately the building and the business.

A pile of 2-by-4s is visible through the window of what was one of the downtown’s most popular restaurants. Crews have been cleaning the interior, portions of which are still charred from a July 6, 2004, fire that swept through the building’s second and third floors.

Smoke and water damage destroyed the street-level restaurant. Now construction workers are passing under the skeletal remains of the front door’s awning, preparing the building for its next tenant.

The building’s new owner, Rick Breton, received a permit this spring from the city to renovate the first floor and rebuild the second and third floors of the eatery that were destroyed in the fire.

According to the plans, Breton expects to rebuild the first floor into a restaurant and create office space in the second and third floors. But the restaurant won’t be occupied by Marco’s.

The city is in final negotiations with Marco’s owners Duane Arnold and Steve Taylor to help them redevelop the Italian restaurant at another location outside of the downtown.

“We expect to have an announcement soon,” said Greg Mitchell, assistant city administrator. He declined to name the restaurant’s new location, however.

The city already has stepped forward to help Breton. A $50,000 community development block grant was issued to help offset the construction costs of rebuilding 177 Lisbon St.

“Clearly we’re happy to see that property in a productive use again,” said Mitchell.

Breton’s Double Eagle Properties bought the building at the same time it purchased the Greeley Building and the Kora Temple building adjacent to the Marco’s site.

Breton owns 153 to 177 Lisbon St., all 19th-century buildings with brick facades.

At the time of the purchase last winter, Breton said he intended to develop the block together, bringing in a new restaurant to the former Marco’s space and a mix of retail and office space into the rest of the property.

In an interview with the Sun Journal last December, Arnold expressed hope that he and Taylor would be able to reopen Marco’s at a new location by this spring. The partners were discouraged from renovating their original Lisbon Street space by the estimated $1.3 million cost.

Marco’s restaurant opened in 1978. Taylor and Arnold each worked there for years before buying the business from Marco Giancotti in April 2000.