By Kathryn Skelton,Staff Writer

With ski mountains in Rumford and Mars Hill, eyes on Norway and new plans to lure tourists to cheese-making vacations in Gray, the Libra Foundation’s got an increasingly eclectic, rural portfolio.

The multimillion-dollar nonprofit has built a reputation for redevelopment – “economic philanthropy” it’s been called.

The Twin Cities want in.

Late last fall, Lewiston and Auburn became the first communities to approach the 17-year-old foundation with a display of all that’s been done here, all that’s left to do and a soft pitch:

Please keep us in mind.

Libra Foundation President Owen Wells says he was impressed.

“They basically said, ‘We want more of you in our town.’ No one else has done that,” he said in a recent interview.

And did it work?

Maybe.

“We’re not going to run forward – we want to do it right in Norway first.”

L-A’s pitch comes at a time when Libra is looking increasingly outward to meet its mission.

The organization began its work in Portland, eventually buying up and turning around about a dozen buildings. Over time, it branched out, using philanthropy to invest in community-bolstering ski mountains, start a statewide reading program and send kids to summer camp, among its efforts.

Last year it picked Norway for a new, ambitious redevelopment project, while last month, signaling its work in Portland might be done – for now anyway – leaders put almost all Libra’s holdings there up for sale.

Libra’s Norway plans are big: new homes, new offices. Wells is already dropping hints about luring a major, first-in-New England retailer. (See related story.)

And there’s more on the plate: cheese. A hands-on enterprise at Pineland Farms slated for May could start a trend – agri-tourism- and see a new inn on the sprawling campus of the former state institution.

Lewiston City Administrator Jim Bennett sounds patient. Next up for the Twin Cities and Wells: a tour to see L-A’s progress firsthand.

Then discussions, when the project and time is right.

“I think we have some projects in the Lewiston-Auburn area that would be highly successful for them to be involved in, but could also be a model for the rest of the state to be looked at and copied,” Bennett said.

In 1998, the philanthropic group offered Portland $20 million toward a new convention center and land to build it on, a deal city officials eventually turned down when they couldn’t raise the rest without new taxes.

Bennett declined to name the projects he’d like to see Libra become part of in Lewiston.

It’s no secret the city has been trying to make a convention center out of Bates Mill no. 5 for years.

The discussion several months ago involved both Twin City mayors, Bennett, Lucien Gosselin at the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council and William Ryan, president of TD Banknorth, which has back-office operations in the Bates Mill. Ryan is one of Libra’s four trustees.

“We were talking about the redevelopment of the mill on the river, retail, things like that,” said Lewiston Mayor Lionel Guay. “He (Wells) was impressed. He said usually they are the ones that have to chase people.”

Wells said he has development ideas for places that have both hospitals and colleges.

Lewiston has two hospitals, three colleges.

“We are looking at a whole lot of different things to do and it doesn’t have to be rural,” he added.

After the big sale of its Portland holdings, Libra will keep its Portland headquarters and hang onto a few empty acres of property it owns along Portland railroad tracks: “We continue to be interested in developing that rail corridor between Portland and Lewiston-Auburn,” Wells said.

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