Cummings mill redevelopment plans get hearing

NORWAY — During a public hearing held January 13, at the Norway Town Office, Brett Doney, CEO of EnterpriseMaine, detailed plans for the C. B. Cummings mill redevelopment project.

Rehabilitation of the 144-year old former wood turning complex is currently tied to the successful application of two Community Development Block Grants (CDBG).

One grant, for downtown revitalization, will be for $500,000.  The other grant, to be submitted in conjunction with Growth Council of Oxford Hills — a division of EnterpriseMaine — is a nonprofit redevelopment request $250,000.

Doney unveiled what was described as a conceptual plan for “phase one” of the project.  If funding is obtained, redevelopment would then proceed to an engineering plan.  Additional hearings would be scheduled at that time to solicit public feedback.

Doney also mentioned that any citizen wishing to contribute to the C. B. Cummings Advisory Committee could contact Marcy Broughter of EnterpriseMaine at 743-8830.

Doney said that completion of phase one should allow EnterpriseMaine to begin selling the first buildings from the mill complex to redevelopers, or possibly even private businesses.

Because estimates for the total infrastructure redevelopment costs at the mill site currently run to $1.1 million, provisional plans call for EnterpriseMaine to “come back [to the town] with at least one more phase.”   

“If all goes well, phase one will be done by next summer,” said Doney, who left open the possibility of work extending into 2007.   “We’d like to be out of [both phases of] the project in the next three years.”

Western Maine Development — another division of EnterpriseMaine — will contribute $195,000 to the redevelopment project.  A portion of this amount will cover the 20 percent local match required for the larger grant request. 

Part of these funds will be earmarked for redevelopment projects which, according to Doney, can only be paid for with matching funds.  These include installation and upgrades to potable (drinking) water systems, fire protection water system and sanitary sewer forced main and pump station. 

Other portions of the project, which must be paid for out of the matching funds, include property purchases and the erection of new signs.

The town will seek to purchase a property on Water Street, between Main Street and Pikes Hill, to be converted into parking. 

Also planned for purchase is a four-acre property off of Orchard Street belonging to George and Mary Verenis.  Currently classified as an “unbuildable lot” by the town — due to combination of wetlands and steep terrain — this area will be converted into walking trails intended to tie “open space” into both the mill and downtown areas. 

Plans call for these trails to connect to other trails that will parallel the Pennesseewassee Stream and exit onto Main Street by the Opera House and the vacant Aubuchon Hardware building.

New grading and paving of walkways beside the Opera House also will be required.

A separate grant request has been filed with the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) to construct foot bridges across the stream, linking the mill complex with Main Street.

Doney said that “it will be some time” before the town finds out if the MDOT grant was successful.

Another expenditure that will be used to meet matching requirements will be the erection of “interpretive signage.”  These signs, to be placed on Routes 26 and 118, are intended to act as gateways directing motorists to downtown Norway, which — along with the Cummings mill site — will be identified as the town’s “historic district.”

Other funds going into the project, above and beyond the CDBG grant, include a $2,600 donation from Selectman William J. Damon and $20,000 worth of fill, an in-kind donation from the town.

Also included will be $31,000 that is to be repaid to Norway by Maine Discoveries.  The town had loaned this amount to the downtown store, which has since gone out of business, under its community development program.  Maine Discoveries was a division of EnterpriseMaine. 

“We really closed it [Maine Discoveries] because we thought a tenant was going to move in there and that deal fell through,” said Doney.  “We are going to try and get that space filled.”

According to Norway Town Manager David Holt, once those funds are repaid, they can only be turned around into other community development projects.

Once construction gets underway, assuming either grant is awarded, the concept plan calls for the demolition of the dowel mill and the single-story concrete paint vault, as well as the boiler feeder.  In place of these structures will be a parking lot.  Additional landscaping will include the planting of several trees designed to act as an inviting gateway.

Integral to the site will be the installation of a storm water management system to help bring the Pennesseewassee Stream into compliance with federal environmental protection guidelines.

Also getting an upgrade will be sewage facilities, water mains, and telecommunications services.  Much of this work will need to be completed by the town before any of the buildings can be sold to redevelopers.

“For those things that have a federal requirement behind them, like the drainage and the sewage and all that stuff, its very unlikely that a private developer is going to be interested in doing that,” said Holt. 

Holt does not expect tax increment financing — credits toward taxes for investments above and beyond a property’s market value — to figure into any potential sales to developers.

Doney reported that EnterpriseMaine has already received interest in some of the buildings on the site, including the existing office space.  One unnamed group is said to be interested in converting the machine shop into an art gallery, while the planer mill is being eyed by another potential manufacturing interest.

The large three-story cinderblock building, at 14,500 square feet, is planed for either office space or loft-style housing.

“The hope,” said Doney, “is to get younger people to move into downtown, in an ownership type of thing.”

“On that building, we’ll be issuing an RFP [request for proposal] for developers.  So, a developer may come in and their own ideas, and if we like those ideas we may select that developer,” said Doney

Additional plans call for the construction, as early as this spring, of four townhouses on property at the corner of Pikes Hill and Water Street.  This area will be earmarked for “empty nesters” seeking to downsize their homes and “snowbirds” looking to have a property management firm care for their homes while they are away.

 

“We’ve worked really closely with a lot of people in the community on this plan so that the space here [at the mill] compliments Main Street and doesn’t compete with it,” said Doney.  “We’re not creating the same kind of space that would be on Main Street.”

According to Doney, EnterpriseMaine only hopes to break even on the Cummings mill redevelopment.  The group, he said, has paid itself nothing for operating expenses related to the project.

“Really, the reason that we’ve been able to do anything in downtown Norway on the real estate side, [is that] when we bought the old Bridgton Knitting Mill, that has turned out to be a profitable real estate project,” said Doney.  “We’ve been taking the profits from that and plowing it in over here.  That’s what’s paying for our staff time.”

EnterpriseMaine had initially worked with the Cummings family and a broker for “about a year” to try and find a willing buyer for the mill.  Failing that, EnterpriseMaine purchased the property outright in December, 2003 for $100,000.

“Our hope is that this [redevelopment] will be a driving force to convince other people to invest in their properties,” said Doney.  “You all know that it’s a real struggle on some of these downtown commercial buildings.  But we think that the worst thing that we can do is just give up.”

Doney said he expects the state to make only “one to three” downtown redevelopment CDBG awards in 2005.  Only one of the CDBG awards for non-profits is anticipated this year.  The two grants are in different categories and do not compete with each other. 

Turnaround time is said to be short, and an answer on the grant applications, from the Maine Office of Community and Economic Development, could be available in only a few months.