NORWAY – The Odd Fellows building in the heart of Norway’s downtown historic district has been sold.

Marilyn Thomas, director of managed assets of Northeast Bank in Lewiston, confirmed this week that the bank conveyed the property on July 8 to New Horizon Capital Investment, a limited liability corporation with an office address of 180 Main St. The selling price was $63,500.

The company principals, Harvey and Dawn Solomon, are traveling internationally and unavailable for comment, but Thomas, who said she has met with the pair on several occasions, said they plan on renovating the property and have talked about putting businesses such as a restaurant on the first of the three-floor building.

“It was based on an appraisal,” said Thomas of the selling price. “The building is in need of a lot of repairs.”

A study of the building by Resurgence Engineering and Preservation Inc. of Portland in January indicates it would take more than $800,000 to fully renovate the building. The quitclaim deed specifies that the property is sold “as is where is and with all faults.”

The building, one of three historic places that will be the subject of state preservationists’ visit to Norway on Thursday night, was taken over by the Northeast Bank months ago after its previous owner, the Growth Council of Oxford Hills, was unable to sell the property. The mortgage on the property was about $70,000.

The Growth Council, which dissolved into the Western Maine Economic Development Council, bought the 19th century, three-story brick building in 2002 from the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 16. The council received about half-a-million dollars in matching state money to renovate it for tenants, but some of it was never used.

Thomas said the building was sold strictly through word of mouth. Several potential buyers, primarily local contractors, expressed interest in the building in recent months.

The basement and first floor were built in 1894 and the other two floors were added in 1911. The structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is part of the historic downtown district, but the interior, which once housed the district court, a jail and other businesses, has been gutted.

The Solomons own other properties in the area including apartment and single family homes on Gothic Street and Skillings Avenue in Paris and a building at 34 Greenleaf Ave. in Norway, according to Paris town officials and the Registry of Deeds.

Thomas said the Solomons are known to buy properties and renovate them, then sell or lease them.