LEWISTON – New cash incentives targeting Lisbon Street developers won’t help projects that are already on the books.

“We’re hoping these will inspire something new, get some interest from outside of the community,” City Administrator Jim Bennett told the City Council on Tuesday night. “We’re really trying to catch something here and get people talking about the area.”

Councilors approved a city policy to pay cash incentives and offer tax deals to developers who build high-quality, multi-story buildings on Lisbon Street’s vacant lots. Incentives start with three-story buildings. The more stories developers build, the more cash they’ll get once they open the buildings.

“Unless you get it built and it’s ready to be occupied, you don’t get a check,” Bennett said.

Bennett first discussed the idea in January as a way to spur redevelopment along Lisbon Street. A Christmas fire that gutted three Lisbon Street buildings, added to the city’s own demolitions over the last three years, have left many open lots in the area.

Developer costs to build downtown are far higher than the potential rents they could charge. The result is developers are staying away from Lisbon Street.

Bennett’s plan would lure them back. The program would last for 18 months, inspiring developers back to Lewiston’s downtown core. It should generate enough interest and demand downtown that developers will be able to charge higher rents for their commercial space, letting the city’s downtown renaissance continue on its own.

Park and Canal streets are part of the deal, too. Projects that have frontage on Lisbon Street will get TIF incentives. Projects that end up having frontage on Lisbon and Canal or Lisbon and Park will get more TIF money.

“We can’t just treat Canal Street like its Lisbon Street’s backside,” Bennett said. “As the mill buildings continue to develop, we need attractive fronts on Canal Street to draw people up to the rest of the city’s downtown.”

Bennett said the new project should be entirely funded by property tax revenues from new developments themselves.