LEWISTON — Developers say there is plenty of demand for a new $10 million downtown hotel, across the Androscoggin River from the Hilton Garden Inn.

“We live in the area and we know the market arguably as well as anybody,” said Chris Thompson, president of Lewiston-based Parallax Partners. “We know there is a market there.”

Parallax Partners will take its proposal for a 93-unit Hampton Inn Hotel, planned for the one acre lot on Lincoln Street just south of Yvon’s Supersonic Car Wash, to the Lewiston Planning Board on June 25.

“We’ve done feasibility studies looking at occupancy and room-rate suggestions and it looks like we can have a very successful endeavor,” Thompson said.

Thompson said the Hampton Inn would be marketed as a three-star hotel, slightly less expensive than Auburn’s Hilton Garden Inn Riverwatch hotel. Both the Hilton Garden Inn hotel brand and the Hampton Inn brand are chains owned and marketed by Hilton Worldwide.

Thompson said he hopes to begin work this fall, with completion in the summer of 2013.

City Planner David Hediger said the hotel fits well with the city’s plans for the area.

The Riverfront Island Master plan, currently being reviewed by the city Planning Board, calls for a hotel in the area. The hotel would tie into a Lewiston Riverwalk mirroring the path in Auburn, tree-lined walking path all along the Lewiston’s Canal system and expanded uses in the area — including more market rate housing units, more office jobs and restaurants.

“It’s certainly in line with both past and current planning studies for this area,” Hediger said. “For years, planning studies have called for a hotel in this area, and the latest plan calls for the same thing. And now it’s happening.”

The current proposal calls for a four-story hotel built at 15 and 29 Lincoln St. — the former sites of the R.I Mitchell building and the Vincent Fruits building. The building’s face would be built right up to Lincoln Street, with parking and support between the street and the river. The bulk of the rooms would face north, looking at Great Falls.

“Once you get up a level, the views are excellent in every direction,” Thompson said. “You look toward the river and Durham in one direction, the falls and Auburn in the other side and then up Main street and Island Point.”

Lewiston zoning requires 96 parking spaces for the development. Most would be built on site or on a city-owned lot between the hotel and the Androscoggin River. That’s currently a gravel lot on top of a city storm sewer cistern, which is designed to divert storm run off away from the Androscoggin River.

The city would continue to own that lot but would allow Parallax to manage the parking there. The hotel would also reserve several spaces in city’s Lincoln Street parking garage.

staylor@sunjournal.com

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