NORWAY – A representative of the real estate company, which with the Libra Foundation is planning to develop the old C.B. Cummings & Sons mill site, said he expects final building plans to be presented to the Planning Board within 30 days.
Morris Fisher of the Boulos Co. said that some changes have been made to the blueprints since they were first informally shown to the Planning Board in December.
Instead of four commercial buildings, there will be three slightly bigger ones, with a total of 18,000 square feet, 2,000 less than originally planned.
“As we were looking at how to best lay out everything we wanted on the site, we couldn’t fit the fourth building,” Fisher said by phone Monday.
The mill occupies about 4.5 acres.
Local people are anticipating with curiosity the new development, which is novel to the area and if successful, could play a key part in revitalizing Norway. Like many small towns in Maine, Norway has suffered economically since its traditional manufacturing base dried up.
At this point, 18 two-story townhouses of about 1,800 square feet are planned, one less than in the original draft. Fisher said the construction of the condos would most likely be staggered to meet demand, although infrastructure for all of them would be installed.
A demolition crew is currently wrecking the empty wood mill. That project is expected to continue into March, and Fisher said construction of the commercial buildings will likely start by April.
The entire project will be finished in 2007, he said. The organizations and investors overseeing this project do not know how much the townhouses or office space will cost.
The mill was founded in 1860 by C. B. Cummings and closed its manufacturing operations in 2002 because of overseas competition. At one time, the family-owned business was one of the town’s largest employers with about 200 workers.
Comments are no longer available on this story