NORWAY – Local television station NPC-TV, or Channel 2, expects to move into the Odd Fellows building on Main Street as soon as the historic structure has been renovated, Western Maine Development Vice President Marcy Boughter said.
The building is currently empty and has been for three years, Norway Planning Board Chairman Dennis Gray said.
Western Maine Development is an affiliate of EnterpriseMaine, which serves as an umbrella for several community development agencies. In 2002 the nonprofit paid the Odd Fellow Order $60,000 for the three-story brick building to turn it into offices.
Gray said the Planning Board at its most recent meeting gave Western Maine Development the go-ahead to renovate the first floor of the 111-year-old building.
Boughter said a $500,000 grant from Municipal Investment Trust Fund will go toward refurbishing the building, but that her organization needs to find another $500,000 to match the grant.
She said $1 million will cover the first floor and prepare the way to begin redoing the upper two stories.
The bottom floor will be occupied by two tenants, but the second tenant has not yet been announced.
Steve Galvin, manager of NPC-TV, is anticipating that good things will come with the move. “It’s going to put us right down on Main Street, which will make us more visible,” he said. Currently, the station is located above Fare Share Market on Main Street. “I hope it attracts some volunteers, and even maybe attract some money.”
The new space will be 300 square feet larger than the station’s current 600 square feet, which will be enough room to add a studio and larger conference room, Galvin said.
He said he hopes to move in by January, but because negotiations between the TV station and Western Maine Development have not been completed, the move-in date is still up in the air. Also, the building reconstruction has not yet started.
Boughter said she hopes to begin demolition of the first floor as soon as possible.
EnterpriseMaine plans to move its offices into the second floor when the building is completed, she said.
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