LEWISTON – A new tenant for the city-owned portion of the Bates Mill should mean the city will break even on its mill operating costs this year.

Safe Handling, an Auburn-based transportation and logistics firm, is leasing space in Mill No. 5.

“This is very good news for us,” said Greg Mitchell, assistant city administrator. “We have a quality tenant for one year for the entire first floor. This should more than cover our cost for operations of the facility at Mill No. 5.”

The city owns Mill No. 5, the 350,000-square-foot saw-tooth-roofed building that economic development officials hope will someday house a convention center. Mill No. 5 and the steam plant are the only two components of the sprawling mill complex still under city ownership.

Ford Reiche, CEO of Safe Handling, has signed a short-term lease to use 150,000 square feet at Mill No. 5 for warehouse space.

Reiche said the company needs the extra space “to handle significant recent growth.” The logistics company is building a new warehouse at its Rodman Road facility in Auburn, part of a $4 million expansion announced last May.

Safe Handling transports raw materials and finished products used in the paper-making process. It began blending and manufacturing its own products this summer to deliver to its paper mill customers.

The company received Pine Tree Zone designation this summer, entitling it to state-backed tax breaks pegged to its future development. Two weeks ago the company received Foreign Trade Zone status, allowing it special trade privileges.

Mitchell said the mill will see a handful of truck deliveries a day. There are two loading docks on Lincoln Street that can handle the deliveries, and there will be no appreciable effect on traffic, he said.

None of the materials that the company plans to store at the mill are hazardous, said Mitchell. Reiche said Safe Handling employees will handle the freight and staff the warehouse.