LEWISTON – The city’s Courthouse Plaza will benefit its newest neighbor, a downtown mental health care provider, officials said Wednesday.
Lewiston will give up some easements along the plaza’s edge, allowing PROTEA Behavioral Services to build the entrance to its new downtown office there, beneath a three-story clock tower.
“The park was a major incentive for all of this,” said Alex Tessmann, chief executive officer and founder of the company. “It’ll be a great place for our patients to come and a great place to put our entrance.”
Tessmann was joined by city officials in the plaza Wednesday to unveil drawings for the planned $1 million renovation of the old McCrory’s department store building. Tessmann said he hopes to be open for business within nine months.
“If the Angel Gabriel is on our side, it could even be sooner,” he said.
They’ve already begun the renovation on the 22,000-square-foot building, flanked by Lisbon Street on the west, Park Street on the east and the city’s Courthouse Plaza on the south.
Plans call for refinishing the Lisbon Street frontage, adding second floor windows. The brick along the plaza side will be cleaned up and windows added to the second floor there as well. A three-story clock tower will be built in the middle of the property for the entrance to the building.
Tessmann said he does not have plans for the other half of the building yet. That’s the cinder block building that extends from the middle of the plaza back to Park Street.
“We might end up doing stucco on that, to make it match the other buildings there,” Tessmann said.
Tessmann will work with Saco-based Sweetser, a mental health services provider, to staff the office. Carl Pendleton, chief executive officer of Sweetser, said he expects the first floor will be finished first and open within nine months. That will provide space for up to 20 licensed mental health clinicians and support staff.
Work on the second floor will come later, with office space there for rent, Pendleton said.
City officials said the project was another step in the city’s continued facelift downtown.
“If this project had been announced three years ago, it would have been the biggest thing to happen downtown ever,” City Administrator Jim Bennett said.
He said the project is being built without city aid, tax incentives or grants. The project could generate as much as $15,000 in new property tax revenue.
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