NORWAY — Work has begun to remove asbestos flooring in one of six storefronts of the Opera House on Main Street.

Project supervisor Ryan St. Pierre of BIOSafe Energy in Westbrook said it will take about two weeks to remove approximately 3,000 square feet of flooring in the former Colonial Coffee Shoppe, several walls in another storefront and possibly a subfloor in the coffee shop. Afterward, the air will be tested to ensure it is safe.

A florescent light fixture and ballast in another storefront will be replaced because of the mercury in them, he said.

Town Manager David Holt said the cleanup is part of a $1.1 million renovation so the first-floor storefronts in the three-story brick edifice on Main Street can be rented. They will be brought up to code, have bathrooms updated and made energy efficient. All historic aspects inside and outside will remain.

The 1894 Opera House is listed on the register as part of the downtown historic district.

Holt said the spaces will be advertised for rent once the tax credit approval comes from the National Park Service, which oversees the National Register of Historic Places program. He said he expects that approval within the next few weeks.

In February, selectmen voted unanimously to allow Holt to sign papers transferring ownership of the Opera House to the Norway Opera House Corp. The transaction takes advantage of federal and state historic rehab tax credits amounting to more than $400,000.

That money will be coupled with a $400,000 Communities for Maine’s Future Grant received last fall and $180,000 in private donations that the corporation is raising to complete the renovation of the storefronts. It will be able to pay for it with no debt, if it can raise the $180,000.

The deed has not been signed over yet because of issues such as setting up a limited liability company to make the project financing work, Dennis Gray of the Norway Opera House Corp. said, but it should happen soon.

“It’s been voted on, it’s ready to go. It just hasn’t happened yet,” Gray said.

Under the deed, the town retained ownership of the four-faced clock and bell and all the mechanisms associated with each, but not the brick and masonry tower they’re in. The town also retained the right to access the clock works when necessary.

It is expected that the Norway Opera House Corp. will eventually look for a buyer for the building.

The Norway Opera House, once the center of town civic and cultural events, has been vacant since a section of the sagging roof collapsed in 2007. The town took it by eminent domain in 2010, because it was deemed a public safety hazard, and reinforced the back wall. The first floor has been vacant since the roof collapse and the upper floors closed for decades.

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