LEWISTON, Maine (AP) Lewiston has approved a new agreement for the redevelopment of a large textile mill with the same developer with whom they have negotiated with for years.
The city council voted 5-1 on Tuesday to approve the fifth agreement with developer Tom Platz since 2015 to revitalize Bates Mill No. 5, the Sun Journal reported.
Platz has redeveloped other parts of the mill complex, but progress on Bates Mill No. 5, a 350,000-square-foot building with a distinctive black sawtooth roof, has stalled.
The new five-year agreement sets multiple milestones that Platz must meet, commits him to installing two public art pieces and decreases the number of parking spaces that the city must provide. The council said that this is the final agreement with Platz, though they will negotiate more about parking spaces.
The mill building requires environmental remediation, including removing asbestos, before it can be redeveloped. A federal grant funding some of that work requires that the city own the building while the grant funds are spent, the newspaper reported.
That means the transfer of ownership of the mill building to Platz likely won’t take place until 2022. A public hearing about the environmental remediation of the site is scheduled for March 30.
