Downtown Waterville, still a work in progress, is up and coming

Photo / Jim Neuger Jason and January Furchak, owners of Holy Cannoli in Waterville.

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On a late summer Tuesday, as Colby College students return to campus for the first week of classes, downtown Waterville’s streets are busy with people walking to and from shops and restaurants.

The green by the Paul J. Schupf Art Center is full of people enjoying a coffee or lunch while soaking up the last warm days of summer. The Lockwood Hotel, which opened in 2022, is preparing a lunch experience for travelers, and the downtown free parking areas are full.

Downtown has become more bustling. In recent years, over $200 million in combined investment from Colby College, investors and small businesses, along with help from tax incentives, has transformed the downtown.

Colby has invested heavily, adding the 100,000-square-foot Alfond Commons mixed-use building, buying and renovating several other buildings and opening the Lockwood. The area has welcomed new arts centers, restaurants, cafes, a bookstore and a new downtown street layout.

There is more to come, including new restaurants and apartments, and the downtown redevelopment is a work in progress.

“Since the revitalization of downtown Waterville began, there have been several positive improvements, including the new Front & Main Restaurant located inside the Lockwood Hotel, the Paul J. Schupf Art Center, which includes the Maine Film Center, the Greene Block & Studios, the Bill & Joan Alfond Commons and returning Main Street to two-way traffic,” says Bill Mitchell, a Waterville developer.

“It’s been incredible to watch,” Mitchell continues. “This massive investment has created a new energy in Waterville, which has attracted several new businesses and young families to our city and has increased foot traffic in downtown Waterville. The former Manor Restaurant site has been redeveloped into housing, Lockwood Mill is under renovation, and hopefully construction of Head of Falls Village will begin soon. The city leadership is working on other important streetscape projects throughout downtown as well.”

Photo / Courtesy of Colby College

Renee Cunningham of Oliver & Friends Bookshop

Businesses are moving to Waterville

Oliver & Friends Bookshop, a growing business in Belgrade Lakes, picked up the shop and moved to Waterville in May.

Renee Cunningham, owner and founder of the bookshop, is now in a ground-floor leased space at Main Street Commons, a Colby College mixed-use facility at 150 Main St.

“The move has been fantastic and my store has been well received,” says Cunningham. “The first couple of months have been exactly what I hoped for. I am gaining a new customer base on Main Street in Waterville while maintaining the great regulars I established during my four years in Belgrade.

“The art center was the biggest deciding factor for me in terms of where I would move,” she continues. “I thought that having that art center on Main Street established Waterville as a hub for the arts and humanity in central Maine, which, for my business books and literature, was perfect. I think that more and more businesses are seeing that.”

Oliver & Friends opened its Belgrade Lakes location amid the pandemic lockdown with a soft launch in June 2020.

Cunningham told Mainebiz that she decided to move her operations to Waterville because the business growth wasn’t where she wanted it to be. She would need to be in a bigger market to continue.

“Here in Waterville, what I could do confidently was to significantly add to my inventory,” says Cunningham. “I felt confident that I would have a much more year-round sales base.”

Cunningham says she is on par with her Belgrade sales for the first three months of summer. She hopes to see the foot traffic continue into the fall.

Unlike the fall drop-off in the seasonal Belgrade market,“I expect sales will not decline sharply now that we are going into September,” says Cunningham. “Downtown has this great energy of a growing Main Street, and I have already seen new businesses coming. At least three businesses are opening their doors on Main Street in three months.”

Provisions retailer seizes opportunity

Zachary Brann owns and operates another relatively new business, Main Street Provisions, which opened in October 2023.

The store offers craft beer, wine, charcuterie and chocolates, as well as handmade glassware, pottery, cutting boards, potholders, cookbooks, cutlery and beer — and wine-making kits.

Photo / Jim Neuger

Zachary Brann, owner of Main Street Provisions in Waterville.

Brann said he longed to open an artisan store. After working in Portland, the Oakland native’s timing for a move back to central Maine seemed right — more than anything because of the revitalization and growth that Waterville has seen in recent years. He wanted to be part of the revitalization and jumped on the opportunity.

Brann received assistance in business and financial planning from the Central Maine Growth Council and Maine’s Small Business Development Centers. He found a 1,500-square-foot street-level lease at 62 Main St.

“For anybody from central Maine, Waterville and the surrounding areas, it is obvious that the revitalization of Waterville is underway,” says Brann.

“Colby has had a huge part in that, whether it is their general investment or the kind of traffic that the art center draws or the hotel draws, which is a huge boon to my store and to bars and restaurants you see downtown. It is nice to see not just the foot traffic and the people you see downtown but the pride and the effort that goes into that as well.”

The Art Center will also welcome a new tenant, Borderlands Coffee, which operates a seasonal craft coffee cart in Belgrade.

This change comes after former tenant Bixby & Co., closed a chocolate cafe there. Owner Kate McAleer told Mainebiz that she closed the cafe in early 2024 to consolidate retail operations into Bixby’s Rockland headquarters.

“We are grateful to the Waterville community for the support they showed us,” says McAleer. “This change was part of a larger strategic plan for Bixby & Co.”

Art center has brought more people to the downtown

Jason Furchak, the owner of Holy Cannoli at 70 Main St., has been a business owner downtown for five years and has seen many changes.

“We watched this building go up and the previous building come down,” says Furchak, referring to the Paul J. Schupf Art Center. “We watched the new Main Street be built from infrastructure and everything up to the finished pavement. We have seen a significant difference in traffic down here, a lot more foot traffic and a lot of people visiting the art center.

“We have seen a lot more people coming downtown in the evenings, a lot more people on the weekends, people coming downtown to catch a movie or take a clay-making class and just experience some of the things the art center has to offer,” says Furchak.

With the new 12-foot sidewalks being built, Furchak says the foot traffic downtown has grown exponentially which has been helping the storefronts in the area. New businesses moving in, developing businesses are booming from the outskirts of town to the downtown area this is the epicenter of Waterville right now.

Along with new businesses comes worries about parking, but Waterville is not short on that. Furchak said that he has been working with the town to make sure that the downtown area has plenty of parking from street and lot parking. All parking in Waterville is free.

“I think we are about midstream about where we would like to be,” says Furchak. “When I bought the business five years ago I kind of had a 10-year plan in my head and I feel like we are about halfway there. We finally zipped up the minor finished product and now we’re going to showcase that product. It is a great city to be in right now.”

Waterville is becoming a hub for more festivals

Waterville is known for its Art Center, which has brought many new and old events back to life, including the Maine International Film Festival. The festival showcases the best of American and international cinema with world premieres, classic revivals, inspiring performances and exhibitions. It also highlights some of Maine and New England’s most innovative filmmakers. It lasts 10 days and features over 100 films. This year, the film festival ran from July 12 through July 21.

But that is not all this year. For the first time, the downtown welcomed a new festival for book lovers.

Madelyn Smith, the founder and organizer of the Maine Book Fest, told Mainebiz that this annual event was founded to cultivate and nurture Maine’s literary and creative community. Involvement has come from authors, publishers, bookstores, nonprofits and educational organizations, printmakers and artists.

The Maine Book Fest took place on Aug. 24-25. This year, the organization had 10,000 attendees and more than 60 vendors and performers throughout the weekend, compared to one to two thousand people and 20 vendors attending last year.

“Waterville seemed like the perfect location due to the central location within Maine and amenities such as Head of Falls Park, Waterville Creates, Greene Block + Studio, and a bustling downtown,” she continues. “We will continue to host the Maine Book & Print Fair [under a new name] in Waterville for 2025 and the foreseeable future.”

What's expected for the future

Many business owners have expressed what they hope for Waterville in the next five years. Furchak, of Holy Cannoli, says that he hopes to see more businesses downtown, including a shoe store and a men’s and women’s clothing store.

Brann, of Main Street Provisions, says more festivals and events would help build on the momentum, making Waterville a destination town.

Both business owners expressed how they hope to see more summer visitors make Waterville a must-stop destination.

Mitchell, a Waterville native, told Mainebiz that he expects continued collaboration between the major stakeholders in Waterville and additional focus and strategic planning in economic development, job creation and market-rate housing.

“The right combination of these three elements is the secret sauce that fuels everything from educating our kids and improving infrastructure to public safety and assisting our most needy citizens,” says Mitchell. “I’m very bullish on Waterville and see a bright future for our great city.”