LEWISTON – It’s a race to bring a new, high-quality hotel to Twin Cities, City Administrator Jim Bennett admitted Tuesday night.

Councilors adopted guidelines for a development district and worked to clean up their ownership of some downtown properties, all part of an effort to speed development of a new downtown hotel.

“There is a race to bring the next hotel to the Twin Cities, and you need to act on this tonight if you want to stay competitive,” Bennett told councilors. “Auburn has already given away their tax money to bring a new hotel over there.”

Auburn councilors Monday approved a tax increment financing district for a hotel in the Auburn Mall area.

“What we need you to do tonight is to clear the way for development in this area,” Bennett said. “Development of the Western Gateway depends on having this hotel.”

Raleigh, N.C.,-based Winston Hotels Inc. announced plans in June to develop a hotel on the 1.16-acre paved parking lot on Mill Street, overlooking Veterans Park and the Great Falls.

Winston is a 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.

The hotel will become the first phase of 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.

The city has owned that Mill Street parking lot since 1993, when it took the land via lien for unpaid property taxes.

“The problem we have tonight is that no hotel is going to want to build that kind of investment on tax-acquired property,” Bennett said. The title still lists several other past owners that could claim some interest in the property.

The best answer is to condemn the lot, taking the property by eminent domain and clearing up the title once and for all.

But first, councilors had to finalize a development district for the Western Gateway. The most important part of the development district is that it lets the city do eminent domain condemnations easier, Bennett said.

The city approved the boundaries for that district in 2003, but never got around to finalizing reasons behind that. Lincoln Jeffers, assistant to the city administrator, said the district creates a blueprint for future development.

“The vision it creates is specific, but there are no contracts that are a part of it,” Jeffers said. “Each step will have to be approved by individual councils as time goes on.”

The district calls for $146 million in investment downtown over the next 20 years. Of that $29 million would be city money set aside to pay for parking. Another $9 million in city money would pay for installing a storm sewer cistern downtown and work on the area’s roads and sidewalks.

The city’s money would be in addition to $108 million in investments from outside of Lewiston. That includes Winston’s $10 million, 100-room hotel and other private investment.

Councilors approved both matters, finalizing the Western Gateway district than condemning their own property to clear the title.

Bennett said he expects developers to name which hotel chain will come to Lewiston in about 90 days.

New substation

Councilors also moved to relocate the Central Maine Power substation at 10 Mill St. out of the gateway area. The company plans to build a new substation on a city lot at 51 Middle St. According to that deal, CMP will build the substation and relocate electric services there, then decommission the old substation. CMP will remove all industrial equipment and transfer ownership to the city for $250,000.

The substation shares a parking lot with Espo’s Trattoria, and Bennett said the city has already heard from developers interested in buying it.

“Our plan is to have a buyer ready to go before we have to pay anything,” Bennett said.