City officials will decide on an updated tax increment financing deal Tuesday for a 152-unit housing development on Middle Street near Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston.

The project, dubbed “The Lowell,” has been in the pipeline for several years by former Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque, who believes the Lowell Street neighborhood “will be the epicenter of Lewiston’s renaissance.”

The $36 million project will feature 90 studio apartments, 40 one-bedroom units and 22 two-bedroom units, which are all planned to be market rate.

Both Levesque and city staff said that while none of the units will be income restricted, they will be priced for the “missing middle” of the population “that have not had the ability to secure new, modern and luxurious units.”

That means at least half of the units will be priced to be attainable to someone making no more than 120% of the area median income, Levesque said.

“The city of Lewiston has been an integral partner in this project, knowing that demand for new market rate construction is high,” he said. “I’m looking forward to a spring 2026 ground breaking, and opening our doors in August of 2027.”

Levesque and city officials had previously agreed on a TIF and credit enhancement agreement in 2023, but the 2024 deadline to acquire financing came and went.

According to a memo to the council from Nate Libby, director of economic and community development, the project has dealt with delays much like several other projects planned post-pandemic. But, he said, some of those effects have been slowly cooling, and “projects are now becoming actionable.”

The new agreement would return a fixed amount of tax revenue from the project, $400,000, to the developer for a period of 20 years. That amounts to roughly 84% of the new tax revenue from the project, but Libby said a fixed amount is beneficial to the city because the percentage will drop over time due to inflation and higher assessments.

Libby said the project is “a bona-fide market-rate housing development … catering to the ‘missing middle,'” featuring “in-unit laundry and garage parking, first-floor commercial space for a restaurant or café, attractive outdoor spaces, and a site plan that fully incorporates the city’s planned riverwalk extensions.”

Levesque said amenities will include fitness and yoga rooms, onsite bike storage, dog walk and pet wash-down area, a community courtyard with fireplaces, and more.

He said the project will also usher in a “massive neighborhood redesign” with dozens of new trees, bushes, light posts, and a universal street that is bike and pedestrian friendly.

Mayor Carl Sheline said Monday that the project “will not only bring much needed housing to our city, it will also transform that corner of our downtown.”

Developers have been eyeing the area around Central Maine Medical Center as an attractive option for housing and mixed-use development for years, but projects have so far not come to fruition. A massive 244-unit development catering to employees of the hospital approved in 2019 was ultimately scrapped.

In his memo, Libby said Levesque “deserves great credit for investing heavily in pre-development costs and doggedly pursuing feasibility amidst challenging market conditions.”

Libby said that while the city’s share of public infrastructure costs was originally estimated to be $1.5 million due to a plan of burying electric utilities, the project will instead use above-ground power lines with the city’s share for streetscape and other improvements now slated to be $850,000.

If approved Tuesday, the amended development agreement also includes some details for a potential second phase of the project “of similar size, scope, and target market, to be developed later.”

Levesque also owns the nearby Peck Building on Main Street, which was recently announced as the new location for St. Dominic Regional High School.

City Administrator Bryan Kaenrath said Monday that the “Lowell” project “builds on the momentum we’re seeing around St. Dom’s and the Riverfront Island Master Plan.”

“This means more people living, working, and investing in downtown, making it a win for all of Lewiston,” he said.