NORWAY — A “strategic plan” for use of the 1894 Opera House on Main Street is expected to be completed this month, officials said.

A $400,000 Communities for Maine’s Future grant will pay for renovating  the six, first-floor storefronts and other improvements. Officials hope that work will be completed by the fall of 2013.

The vacant three-story brick building stands in the heart of the downtown National Historic District. Therefore, the work must meet standards of the National Parks Service, which administers National Historic District properties.

The town is working with the Norway Opera House Corp. to use historical tax credits in partnership with Norway Savings Bank to further stretch the grant money. The corporation will be asked to take over ownership of the building once the town determines it can take advantage of the tax credits, Town Manager David Holt said.

The corporation plans to get a loan from Norway Savings Bank for the matching part of the grant and collateralize it by the value of the Opera House property and the tax credits.

Holt recently released notes from a meeting with local officials, the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development, Maine Historic Preservation Commission and the Office of the State Fire Marshal to discuss grant requirements and other issues.

The discussion included possible second-floor work but Holt stressed that not all the ideas will be implemented.

“It is important, if we are going to do this, that we all understand that we will discuss many things that we don’t end up doing,” he said. No decision has been made about what will happen to the second floor, which has a ballroom and stage. The third floor has a balcony.

If renovation is started upstairs, code requirements would include an elevator, making that plan cost prohibitive at this time, Holt said.

“We are simply trying not to do things at this point that paints us into a corner before we do make those decisions,” Holt said.

The historic edifice, with its working tower clock, was taken by the town last year after its owner failed to stabilize it following a partial roof collapse in 2007.

Built by the Norway Building Association, the Opera House was bought by the town in 1920. Its ballroom was central to community life for many years, hosting concerts, traveling minstrel shows, theater performances, town meetings and high school graduation ceremonies. Businesses operated on the first floor.

In 2003, the Opera House was designated one of Maine’s Most Endangered Historic Properties by Maine Preservation of Portland.

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