LEWISTON – A retail strip along the front of a planned parking garage could change the face of Lincoln Street, councilors said Tuesday.

“I think we know that Lisbon Street will never be what it once was, no matter what we do,” said Councilor Nelson Peters. “But Lincoln Street could be what Lisbon Street was. It really could be the Lisbon Street of tomorrow, so we have to keep that in mind as we are developing it.”

Councilors reviewed general ideas for a planned 450-space parking garage on the southwest corner of the Bates Mill No. 5 parking lot. The garage would replace the lot north of Fishbones American Grill along Lincoln Street.

Developer Tom Platz, who is designing the garage, said plans to bring retail space into the development could work fine. Platz’s initial site plan called for 8,500 square feet of retail facing Lincoln Street, with the garage going back into the hillside below the massive No. 5 building. He also called for a park or pedestrian area on the south side of the garage over the canal. That could have spaces set aside for food vendors as well.

“That would give the area sort of a Freeport feel,” Platz said.

Councilors agreed in November to begin work planning the 450-space garage. It’s part of an effort to bring more parking spaces downtown as called for in a 2004 Bates Mill exit strategy with Platz Associates. Under that deal, Platz took over the Bates Mill Enterprise Complex, including all buildings except the massive sawtooth-roofed Bates Mill No. 5. According to that agreement, the city needs to provide 1,850 parking spaces through 2011 – and no more than 450 spaces per year.

Platz said his initial designs would let the city expand the garage north, toward Main Street.

Councilors liked the ideas, and urged him to keep developing them. He said he’d report back to councilors at another workshop in about a month.

“What we’d really be doing is changing the entire flavor of the downtown,” Councilor Denis Theriault said. “And I think that’s something we really want to do, too.”

The city could begin work on the garage this fall.