Courtesy / Lockwood Hotel
A guest room at the Lockwood Hotel in Waterville.
September 7, 2022
Downtown Waterville's Lockwood Hotel opens
Courtesy / Lockwood Hotel
The Lockwood Hotel has opened in downtown Waterville.
Waterville’s effort to redevelop the downtown took another step forward in recent days.
The Lockwood Hotel, with 53 guest rooms and a restaurant known as Front & Main, opened to guests in late August.
The $26 million hotel was developed by Colby College and is being managed by Charlestowne Hotels, which oversees more than 50 hotels. The hotel served as additional student housing during the pandemic, but has now been opened to guests.
Landry / French Construction of Scarborough managed the construction of the hotel project. The architect was the Richmond, Va.-based firm Baskervill.
The Lockwood is downtown Waterville’s first new hotel in over a century — and builds on the recent development of the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons, a student residential complex on Main Street; Greene Block + Studios, an arts collaborative across from the hotel; and the planned Paul J. Schupf Art Center.
Other improvements downtown include infrastructure and landscape upgrades, and continued renovation of the Lockwood Mill complex for housing and retail use. More than $200 million has been invested in downtown revitalization.
“Lockwood Hotel is central to ensuring Waterville is a vibrant and dynamic city where people want to live, work, and visit,” said Brian Clark, vice president of planning at Colby College. “The hotel and its great restaurant, Front & Main, serve both as a gathering place for the community and as a destination that brings visitors into the heart of downtown.”
Front & Main is overseen by Executive Chef Jesse Souza. He is working the local relationships, buying flour from Skowhegan-based Maine Grains and cheese from Skowhegan-based Crooked Face Creamery, as well as seafood from Portland-based Harbor Fish Marketa and range of products from at South China-based 3 Level Farm.
'Modern, art-driven'
Waterville's new hospitality property is being billed as “a modern, art-driven hotel.”
Sculptor Bernard Langlais, who was affiliated with the nearby Skowhegan School of Art & Sculpture and lived in Cushing, has a prominent work in the lobby. There are Wabanaki basket weavings by Jeremy Frey and photographer Tanja Hollander’s Maine landscapes are featured on all guest room walls. The lobby features rugs by Angela Adams of Portland.
As a side note, the Lockwood is dog friendly, and guests with four-legged friends will receive a "doggie amenity package" that includes treats from Maine-based Loyal Biscuit.
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