LEWISTON – In what the company called a nice complement to the city’s heritage, L.L. Bean inked a deal this week to make the rubber bottoms of its signature Bean boot here.

The company has leased 50,000 square feet of a building owned by developer George Schott at 75 Westminster St.

L.L.Bean spokeswoman Carolyn Beem said mold-making machines, $1 million worth of equipment, are expected to arrive from Italy in mid-June.

“It’s a significant investment for us and we’re quite proud of where we’ll be,” she said. “There’s a great deal of excitement. This is an item that started the company, basically. For it to come from Brunswick and Lewiston is really a great pride for us.”

The boots’ leather uppers have long been made in Brunswick, where they will continue being assembled. The 24 styles of rubber bottoms have come from Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Arkansas, and for a short time in the 1980s, Lewiston. Beem said that fleeting arrangement involved a company L.L. Bean didn’t own.

It will own this operation.

Eight to 12 new jobs will be created at the boot-bottom facility. Production is scheduled to start around September. She anticipated the new Maine-made boots would hit shelves in late fall, but wasn’t sure if they’ll have any special mark signifying that the rubber bottoms were made here.

Beem said she didn’t know how many sites had been looked at for the operation, but that there was a desire to keep it close to Brunswick.

“This is a big deal for me,” said Schott, who bought the Westminster Street building in 2005 for $3,365,000. It was the former Dion Distributors, built in 1987.

Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce President Chip Morrison said L.L. Bean is known as a good employer; it already has a large call center here. He welcomed the news for the city and for bucking a trend by creating manufacturing jobs.

“Who doesn’t have a pair of Bean boots?” he noted.