Three projects involving new hotels were planned for L-A in 2008.

One is still coming.

One has been downsized.

And the third?

“Right now, I would say there’s no project,” said developer Tom Platz of the Great Falls Plaza hotel project.

Like retail, hotels have had a bumpy economic year. For Lewiston-Auburn, results have been mixed.

Developer George Schott is moving forward with his $13 million Marriott Residence Inn near the Auburn Mall. Construction is going on now and the four-floor, 100-room hotel is set to open in March.

Schott has no qualms about opening a hotel in this tough economy, at least not in Lewiston-Auburn.

“I don’t think there’s any concern. The rooms might have to be a little cheaper than we thought, but there’s room for motels in this market,” he said.

Lincoln Jeffers, development director for Lewiston, is also optimistic about his city’s hotel future – though the $26 million project that includes a Marriott Courtyard Hotel, a redeveloped Cowan Mill and a new restaurant/retail complex for Island Point has been scaled back.

Jeffers declined to say what in the original plans would be lost, but he said the residential condos connected to the project may be on the chopping block.

“That’s something that’s being looked at very hard. The condo market, housing, it puts that portion certainly in jeopardy,” Jeffers said.

But much of the project, including the hotel, is still slated to be built.

“(The project developer) has not folded up the tent. He is absolutely still pressing forward with it. I guess that’s the important message,” Jeffers said.

Construction is expected to begin this spring.

Auburn’s Great Falls Plaza was supposed to get a 110-room hotel this year. That project is on hold for the foreseeable future – but not because of the economy. A legal challenge has it tied up in court.

Lee Griswold and Riverwatch LLC, which opened the Hilton Garden Inn at Great Falls in 2003, challenged the project in Androscoggin County Superior Court, citing improper procedures and an incomplete application from Platz and his partners, Mullaney Hospitality Group and the city, when the Auburn Planning Board approved the hotel and parking garage on April 8.

Platz, chief executive of Great Falls Plaza Development Corp., said he had offered to take the project back to the Planning Board to clear up the issues, but Riverwatch would not agree and the project remains in court.

“It’s just going to be tie-up after tie-up after tie-up,” Platz said. “Our hotel guy is not interested in waiting forever. There are other people out there and we’ll certainly try, but we were ready to break ground Sept. 1 with a parking garage and a hotel, which would be over $20 million in construction.”

The hotel definitely won’t happen next year, Platz said.