LEWISTON – It’s up to Marriott International whether a new multimillion dollar hotel will be built in Lewiston or Auburn, according to Jim Bennett, Lewiston city administrator.

Developers Winston Hotels have applied for franchise agreement with Marriott Courtyard, one of the brands operated by Marriott International, as of 4:30 p.m. Thursday. Winston hopes to build a 100-room hotel downtown in Lewiston, just below the Great Falls off of Main Street.

That’s in direct competition with a project in Auburn’s mall area being proposed by Ocean Properties and developer George Schott. That group submitted their franchise agreement application with Marriott Courtyard last week.

“There will be a direct competition between those two developers to get that flag,” Bennett said Friday. “My understanding is that some time by the first of the year, we will get a decision on who will get that flag.”

Bennett outlined Lewiston’s plans for the hotel to a meeting of the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council on Friday.

Much of the city’s western gateway development scheme depends on the hotel, he said. That includes redevelopment of Bates Mill No. 5 and the Island Point redevelopment project announced in 2005. Developer Travis Soule plans to redevelop Cowan Mill, immediately north of the planned hotel, for condominiums and a restaurant.

“It’s clear to us that if the franchise goes through on this site downtown, all of the developments planned for the downtown will just snowball,” Bennett said. “That’s true on both sides of the river, in Auburn as well as Lewiston.”

Winston Hotels is a Raleigh, N.C.-based real estate trust that owns and develops upscale hotels. The trust operates 53 hotels in 18 states; the nearest are in Shelton and Windsor, Conn. Most are franchises of the Hilton, Marriott, Choice or Intercontinental hotel chains.

Roland Miller, economic development director for the city of Auburn, said the matter is out of the cities’ hands.

“What happens next will be determined by the investors, and by the market in general,” Miller said.

Ocean Properties, owner of the Samoset in Rockport and Wentworth-by-the-Sea in Portsmouth, hopes to build its Mariott Courtyard at Turner Street and Mount Auburn Avenue.

Miller said he is sure there is demand for at least one new hotel in the Twin Cities. The Hilton Garden Inn opened downtown in Auburn’s Great Falls Plaza in 2003 and added 36 rooms in 2005.

“I’m not at all surprised that there are multiple proposals for hotels at this time,” Miller said. “I’ve had a number of phone calls offering proposals on our one project alone. There is a lot of interest.”

Marriott unaware

Marriott spokesman Matthew Carroll said company officials were unaware of either franchise application.

“But we do know of discussions of both properties at this point,” he said.

The Marriott Courtyard brand caters to a business clientele, offering free in-room, high-speed Internet access, large desks with no-glare lighting and ergonomic chairs, two telephones with multiple lines, data ports and voice mail, as well as on-property business centers. It also markets itself as a base of operations for nonbusiness guests, offering services for reunions, weddings and vacations.

“Different factors in different communities make sense to us,” Carroll said. The company operates Marriott Courtyard-branded hotels in cities as well as suburban areas.

“It all depends on the given market and on what other economic activity would be served,” Carroll said.