A long-planned neighborhood grocery store, cafe and food business incubator in Lewiston is moving forward after city officials agreed to sell the former police station property at 171 Park St. to project organizers.

The L-A Community Market, which will operate under a cooperative ownership structure with memberships, is planned to also have dry and cold storage for local farms and growers, commercial kitchens, and outdoor space for food trucks.

Organizers said last week that the former police station will be razed to make way for a new, 20,000-square-foot facility. The City Council has approved a purchase and sale agreement that will sell the property for $2,000, with the L-A Community Market group set to put $10 million into the redevelopment.

Rebecca Swanson Conrad, the former L-A Metro Chamber president who serves as an adviser on the project, told officials the market will be a “hub for local food,” local produce, and will serve the city’s diverse downtown population that has been in need of a neighborhood grocer.

According to a memo to the council from Nate Libby, director of the city’s Department of Economic and Community Development, the project “will bring substantial economic activity and access to groceries to a part of the city that lacks access to a grocery store within walking distance.”

The idea for the neighborhood grocery store and food hub stemmed from the Choice Neighborhoods “transformation plan” for the Tree Streets neighborhood, which includes three of the state’s highest poverty census tracts. According to Libby, the area was essentially found to be a food desert, with many residents with low incomes and limited transportation options having to travel long distances to supermarkets.

Unlike traditional grocery stores, food co-ops are independently owned and operated by their members, who also typically receive discounts and have a say in how the co-op is run. The cooperative will be governed by its 15-member founding board, which has worked with several technical advisers to develop the project, including the Cooperative Development Institute and Gather to Grow, formerly St. Mary’s Nutrition Center.

Kirsten Walter, executive director of Gather to Grow, told the City Council last week that she’s been grateful for the partnership with the city for what she believes is a “critical program.”

Conrad said with the purchase and sale agreement signed, market organizers have 60 days of due diligence before closing on the property. She said while the group has received a quote for demolishing the building — about $411,000 — an environmental site assessment must be done first, which is in process. The construction timeline will be established once the sale is final, she said.

“LACM looks forward to celebrating the groundbreaking with the city and community while developing membership in the co-op,” she said.

Councilors unanimously supported the project last week, with Councilor Susan Longchamps calling it, “something that’s definitely needed.”

Mayor Carl Sheline said this week that the project “checks a lot of boxes” and that he’s “excited about this community space coming to Lewiston.”

The market will be a for-profit enterprise and the city estimates the market will pay roughly $85,000 annually in property taxes once the project is complete.

Funding comes from several sources, including the Cooperative Fund of New England, Fair Food Fund, Coastal Enterprises Inc., and New Markets tax credits, a federal program aimed at attracting private investment in struggling local economies.

According to the purchase and sale agreement, the property will be returned to city ownership “in the unlikely event the project does not come to fruition.”

Due to delays in the Police Department’s move to its new headquarters in the Bates Mill complex, organizers of the community market project and the city settled on an extension of the option agreement to purchase the building in April of this year.

When first proposing the idea of a community food center, staff from St. Mary’s Nutrition Center said they constantly receive requests from local organizations looking to use its kitchen, and a larger commercial kitchen at the community market would allow for events, rentals and could serve as an incubator space for local businesses to test products.

Plans call for a 4,000-square-foot commercial kitchen for community use.

The effort was originally proposed for the former Sun Journal building at 104 Park St., but was caught in the middle of a Lewiston Housing proposal to put a shelter there.