Though it’s come a long way already, the redevelopment of Lewiston’s Bates Mill Complex is still a work in progress. Additional renovation work is taking place in the upper floors of Building 1, while the longer-term effort at Mill No. 5 continues with efforts to line up potential tenants.
Though it’s come a long way already, the redevelopment of Lewiston’s Bates Mill Complex is still a work in progress.
A former textile factory, its current tenants include Fishbones Grill, TD Banknorth and Grand Rounds, a San Francisco-based health-technology startup that expanded to Lewiston in 2017. A total of more than 2,000 people work inside the eight-building complex, bringing new life to downtown.
“When I was growing up,” developer Tom Platz told Mainebiz, “Lewiston-Auburn was the business and retail hub of Maine, even before Portland was really developed. All these cities suffered, but we are probably halfway through a resurgence, and people are starting to move back.”
While some refurbished buildings are fully occupied, others are not quite there yet, with parts of Building 1 currently under construction. Platz said the aim is to finish the fourth floor in late 2019 and the fifth floor in early 2020, totaling 86,450 square feet combined.
Mill No. 5 is a longer-term project after the city gave Platz until 2021 to pull off the redevelopment of the 350,000-square foot building, the largest of the eight on the site.
Though he has the right to buy the building for a symbolic $1, the city left open the possibility for another developer to take over the project in the third year.
Platz told Mainebiz he’s in talks with at least three potential tenants for Mill No. 5 and hopes to make progress later this year, more than two decades after his firm began working with the city and Bates Mill Development Co. LLC in 1997.
“We saw incredible historic buildings that were essentially in good structural shape,” he said. “We felt that bringing them back to life was an opportunity to speak to our history while upgrading and bringing in new business.”
