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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 17 M AY 2 8 , 2 0 1 8 L E W I S T O N / A U B U R N The bandwagon en the redevelopment surge began. "Once people started seeing others doing it, they started jumping on," says Sonder & Dram's Roy. "Now it's full force. A lot of investors want to buy buildings on this street and fi x them up." e new businesses are comple- mented by the Gendron Franco Center, Public eatre, Museum L/A and L/A Arts; community activities like art walks, shopping showcases and festivals; and amenities like greenway trails. Androvise Realty broker Chad Sylvester has seen the change, working in downtown Lewiston since 2003. " ere were substantially fewer trans- actions then," he says. "When Eric Agren built Fuel, I think that spurred downtown energy that we hadn't seen before." Sylvester notes that restaurant and retail activity along downtown Lisbon's northern blocks tends to get attention, but new activity also occurred along the southern section, like the 2010 arrival of Purdue University Global, at 75 Lisbon St. He and others say they expect new residents arriving at e Hartley Block will spur more vitality. Many credit the immigrant com- munity for adding energy, too. " e children of the fi rst wave of immigrants have graduated from college and are coming home, starting families and starting businesses," says Jeff ers. In 200, Shukri Abasheikh, a Somali immigrant, opened one of the most popular businesses, Mogadishu Store at 20 Lisbon St. Back then, she recalls, the downtown was not espe- cially nice-looking. "Not a lot of people," she says. But the area was ideal for her family, being less chaotic and more walkable than Atlanta, where they'd lived before. Even those who leave for places like New York inevitably return to Lewiston, she says. All but one of her eight children, age 13 to 3, remain in Lewiston. "Now it's very good. A lot of busi- ness, a lot of people, a lot of markets," she says. The forecast New collaborations, city initiatives and aff ordability continue to drive downtown redevelopment. "We have a 2,00-square-foot apart- ment and we pay 1,000 per month with utilities included," says Hollenbeck. "In Portland, we were in an extremely small apartment for 1,000 with nothing included, and that was close to 10 years ago. So you defi nitely get a lot more bang for your buck here." Rent for e Hive, displaying art- work by 15 artists, is 550 with utilities included. " at's what a lot of studios go for in Portland for a cubicle," she continues. "We get calls and emails from Portland artists who are getting priced out." But there's more to be done. A stroll down Lisbon reveals buildings available for purchase or underutilized, like the massive Depositors Trust Building, at 55 Lisbon St., on the market for 55,000. Sylvester lists the 188 Sands Building, at 12 Lisbon St., at 37,000, and adja- cent 130 and 13 Lisbon, built in 11, as a package at 350,000. Prices like that, with additional renovation, could make further invest- ment tricky. Even with Pozdniakov and Morin's purchase of Lisbon for only 2,000, they spent almost 500,000 on renovation. " e buildings require a lot of love to bring them up to what they deserve to be," says Pozdniakov. "It's challenging for someone to make the numbers work." All agree that more retail and resi- dential is needed. "We need a shoe store, a boutique, a gift shop — things like that that, where someone can come here and spend two hours walking around, like you would in downtown Portland," says Grenier. "We don't have that quite yet." But things are coming around. "I think there are still a lot of people in the surrounding community who are used to Lisbon Street being downtrodden that they don't realize what's going on here," Hollenbeck says. "I screen-print a lot of 'I Love Lewiston' T-shirts. I'll wear one and get comments like, 'I wouldn't be caught dead wearing that.' I say, 'When was the last time you were there?' It's like, 'I haven't really been.' So there's this dis- connect. We have beautiful architecture. We've got good housing stock. We've got restaurants and breweries. And you can aff ord to support them because you're not paying thousands for rent." L S, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at @ . Advance within an exciting field Earn a Master's in Cybersecurity! www.thomas.edu/cybersecurity 207-859-1159 Offering Maine's only graduate degree in Cybersecurity P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Jules Patry in one of the upper fl oors in a building on Lisbon Street he is renovating for commercial and residential use. F O C U S

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