Plan: Lewiston to improve 30 downtown blocks in 10 years

boulevard: Wide road would go from Lincoln St. to Bates St.

LEWISTON – Officials unveiled an ambitious plan to revive about 30 blocks of the city’s poorest neighborhood Thursday, drawing inspiration from the area’s communal past.

Dubbed the Heritage Initiative, the 10-year program is pegged to a new $4 million office building, a new road to link Bates Street and the Maine Turnpike and a broad set of goals to improve residents’ quality of life and restore a sense of community.

“Today’s announcement is the start of something magical, something creative and something long overdue,” said Mayor Lionel Guay.

Guay, a native of the area, lamented the decline of the neighborhood from a vibrant, cordial community of years past to its neglected status of today. Statistics make the case: the area represents 2 percent of all property in the city, but draws 15 percent of police patrols; 37 percent of the properties have tax liens; 93 percent of the housing stock is at risk for lead paint; general assistance payments within the area have increased 66 percent over the past five years; and one in four children do not finish the school year in the same elementary school in which they started.

“No one deserves to live in that environment,” said City Administrator James Bennett. “It’s our responsibility to step up to the plate.”

He and Guay outlined the proposal to a crowd of about 30 people assembled at the City Building. Targeting a neighborhood bounded by Park Street, Adams Avenue, Bartlett Street and Pine Street, the plan takes aim at reducing crime, improving substandard housing, reducing transiency and increasing the value of taxable property.

Bennett explained that these are all long-term objectives, but realistic if the community pulls together. Financing for the project will come primarily from leveraging and redirecting about $1.1 million in federal money the city receives annually which is distributed through community development block grants. The lion’s share of that money over the past five years has gone to the Bates Mill redevelopment; Bennett’s proposal shows the mill complex receiving zero CDBG funds for 2004.

“(The Heritage Initiative) is definitely the priority,” said Bennett. The state’s congressional delegation, financial institutions and other links to money will also be tapped to help finance the project.

Newest neighbor

Key to the plan are partners, said Bennett. The first to come on board is Community Concepts Inc., which announced plans to build a $4 million office complex at the intersection of Maple and Park streets as step one in the Heritage Initiative project.

“It’s CCI’s intent to create an environment of comfort, pride and opportunity,” said Matt Smith, executive administrator of the non-profit social service agency.

The 22,000-square-foot building would house about 100 CCI workers, drawing from its existing offices in Auburn, South Paris, Rumford and Farmington. Smith said there are no plans to close any of the other CCI offices, many of which are overcrowded. Located diagonally across from The Public Theatre, the building could be expanded to 36,000 square feet if CCI finds other tenants willing to share the space.

Smith said he expects it will take two years to complete the project, since financing has to be arranged and properties acquired. But it represents exactly where the agency wants to go in terms of merging its mission to provide services with being a partner in economic development.

“We expect to make about $15 million in investments into the neighborhood over the next five years,” he said.

A joint development agreement between the city and CCI will come before the City Council Tuesday. In the document, the city agrees to acquire the existing property needed for the project and to build an adjacent parking lot. CCI in turn will provide $83,000 per year for 20 years to the city, in lieu of taxes. Bennett said the payments ought to just about cover the city’s portion of the cost, with a projected shortfall of $350,000 that would be picked up by the CDBG money. In essence, no local taxes would be diverted to the project, said Bennett.

New road

Another key component in the plan is a new boulevard, extending from a new Maine Turnpike exit on Lincoln Street, to Maple Street and ultimately Bates Street. The route would divert truck traffic from the downtown, as well as allow easier access to the Colisee on Birch Street.

Construction costs for the connector would run about $2.5 million in today’s dollars, with another $1 million to $2 million needed to acquire the numerous properties affected by the project, said Bennett.

Officials have been working on the Heritage Initiative for about the past two years.

Bennett said the timing was right to unveil the project, given the momentum created by the Southern Gateway improvements and other housing projects that have cropped up in that neighborhood over the last two years. About $10 million in new housing complexes have been built in that area, including projects by CCI, Sisters of Charity, the Lewiston Housing Authority and Coastal Enterprises Inc.

Bennett said the area is beginning to see investment by real estate speculators, a spin-off from the gateway project. Properties that were selling for $5,000 to $10,000 per rental unit two years ago are now fetching prices of $30,000 per unit.

“Our approach to this whole project has been long term and integrated,” he said. “Five to 10 years from now I hope people will say Thank God we made those investments.'”

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