WATERVILLE (AP) – The historic factory where Hathaway shirts were made for more than a century will be redeveloped into office space for MaineGeneral’s health care network, under a lease deal signed Friday.

The space at the Hathaway Creative Center will be redeveloped by Niemann Capital, which specializes in revitalizing historic structures, and Paul Boghossian, a Rhode Island developer. It is expected to be ready for occupancy in the spring of 2008.

Under the lease signed with the developers Friday, MaineGeneral Health will occupy 40,000 square feet of space on the third floor of the center, making it the anchor tenant of the former shirt factory. MaineGeneral has the option to lease an additional 10,000 square feet.

MaineGeneral will use the space as offices for 193 people.

The Waterville site was occupied for more than 160 years by the shirtmaker known by the trademark featuring a man wearing an eyepatch. An attempt was made in the 1990s to revitalize the factory.

In a statement released for the lease signing in Waterville on Friday, Baldacci called the former Hathaway shirt factory “another historic landmark that merits revitalization” and said the project “will help advance economic development in the region while better serving the community’s health care needs.”

The Hathaway Creative Center is the first phase of the Lockwood Mills Campus, a joint venture development between Niemann Capital and Paul Boghossian.

MaineGeneral, a major regional employer with 3,800 employees, last year became the anchor tenant of the former Carleton Woolen Mill, now called the Winthrop Commerce Center, in Winthrop. In July, MaineGeneral will open the Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care in Augusta, and will be a tenant at FirstPark in Oakland in the fourth quarter of 2007.