By Carol Coultas,Business Writer

AUBURN – Mayor Norm Guay is drawing a lot of personal satisfaction from Kohl’s decision to open a store on Mount Auburn Avenue.

First, the department store’s arrival signals a return to retail prominence for the area, a distinction Lewiston and Auburn enjoyed when Guay was growing up and people from as far as The County and New Hampshire came to shop here.

“This is great news for Lewiston-Auburn and the region,” he said. “People have been pleading with us to bring in more stores so they don’t have to travel outside the community to shop for certain items.”

Plus, he’s a (credit) card-carrying Kohl’s fan.

“I got these at Kohl’s,” he said, raising his pant leg to display a spiffy pair of tasseled loafers.

The mayor and Roland Miller, economic development director for the city, presided over a press conference Wednesday formally announcing the department store’s plans to open its fourth Maine store here. Both men expect more news regarding other retailers now that Kohl’s has made a commitment.

Kohl’s will build a new $7 million, 98,000-square-foot store on the site of the old Wal-Mart building. A 30,000-square-foot building will go in next to it. S.R. Weiner, the development company that is arranging tenants for local owner George Schott, manages more than 70 retail centers throughout New England. It has strong relationships with many national retailers and a local connection: Its president, Jeremy Sclar, is from Lewiston.

“We are very fortunate that the two principals in this mall development area are local people,” said Guay, mentioning Schott and Sclar. “(They) have taken a personal interest in propelling retail development in Auburn to the next level.”

Sclar, son of developer Stanley and brother to developer Zachary, declined a request for an interview from his Boston-based company. He said that although he was pleased to help bring Kohl’s to his hometown area, he preferred to avoid the spotlight.

The announcement has spurred speculation about what might be going in next to Kohl’s, in the adjacent 30,000-square-foot building to be developed on the same 15-acre site. Weiner is working to sign a tenant for that building as well.

A covenant attached to the deed for the property limits its development. When Wal-Mart sold the property to Schott in 2003, it attached the stipulation, prohibiting the parcel from being developed for a general discount merchandiser, a supermarket, a wholesale membership club or a drugstore. It specifically did allow Kohl’s, TJ Maxx, Marshall’s, Linens ‘n Things, Office Max, Circuit City, Old Navy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Tweeter, Best Buy and other national, specialty chains detailed in the deed. Restaurants are also allowed.

The city used tax incentives to help seal the deal for Kohl’s and another nearby retail parcel owned by Schott. It has made two proposals – one that designates a portion of new retail tax revenue to pay for road improvements and another that would return a portion of the new retail tax money to Schott to offset upfront development costs.

The city council endorsed both proposals as concepts this week. The details of the tax agreements will be worked out with councilors in July.

Miller said that without the city’s support, it was unlikely the deal with Schott would have worked. Guay said the city has a history of being very responsible about issuing tax breaks, and considers them only when additional jobs and taxes are created. More than 100 permanent jobs are expected from the Kohl’s development.

“It’s a quality of life issue,” said Guay. “We’ve focused on industrial growth, and on our downtowns. (Retail) was the small piece of the pie that was missing.”