NORWAY — Construction of a $8.2 million medical office building downtown is well underway as summer nears its end.

“Now that all of the important groundwork has been completed, the project is really beginning to take shape,” Barbara Allen, vice president of development and community relations at Norway’s Stephens Memorial Hospital, said. “It has been exciting for us to watch the transformation from SMRT’s paper architectural renderings to the actual building emerge.”

SMRT is the Portland firm that designed and engineered the building.

Construction is expected to be completed by December. In early 2016, the combined physician offices of Western Maine Family Practice and Oxford Hills Family Practice, as well as the Oxford Hills Internal Medicine group and cardiac rehab, will relocate to the new medical office building.

The 25,000-square-foot building is on three acres once occupied by the C.B. Cummings & Sons Co. dowel mill beside Pikes Hill Road.

Work began in April under the supervision of general contractor Landry/French Construction of Scarborough.

Allen said the base coat of paving was finished recently and work on the roof and some interior framing continues.

“The new retaining wall and tree plantings along the bank facing Orchard Street provide a nice visual definition to the property and building,” she said.

New granite curbing and sidewalks will be placed along the property on Orchard Street and circle back down Pikes Hill, Allen said.

In August 2014, Western Maine Health Care Corp., owners of Stephens Memorial Hospital, the adjacent Ripley Medical Building and other facilities, announced the construction project as part of a $10 million plan to meet increasing out-of-hospital care needs.

Ripley Medical Building, next to Stephens Memorial Hospital on lower Main Street, will also undergo a $1.8 million renovation. After its personnel makes the transition to the new office space, Ripley will become the home of Western Maine Pediatrics, Allen said.

The new facility will be built to the Efficiency of Maine Advanced Building Program standards, Allen said.

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