The City of Lewiston’s ongoing plans to develop its riverfront area are about to get a boost from Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque in the form of two new housing and retail projects on Middle and Lowell streets.

The first is a mixed-use building with restaurant or retail space on the bottom floor and 150 market-rate apartments on the upper levels. The long-term plan includes a similar, second structure nearby on Lowell Street with 170 units of housing, Levesque said.

“This is going to be an urban core,” he said.

Levesque also works as a developer through his firm, Aegean Development. He made headlines in 2019 when he announced he was buying the building on Main Street in Lewiston that had been home to Peck’s Department Store until the landmark retailer closed in 1981.

Now, Levesque’s newest projects will, if city officials approve, occupy what are currently two large parking lots in the Lowell Street area. So far, Levesque said, the Lewiston Planning Board has approved the Middle Street project, and is expected to address the second proposal on Lowell Street sometime in October.

Over the summer, Lewiston announced the groundbreaking on several development projects, including a $14.6 million project in the city’s former Continental Mill building on Cedar Street, right on the Androscoggin River itself.

That project will produce nearly 50 new units of government-subsidized, low-income affordable housing, but Lincoln Jeffers, Lewiston’s director of economic and community development, said there is a strong need citywide for market-rate housing, too. Right now, he said, rents range from $1,700 to $2,200 per month for the average two-bedroom apartment, and $1,200 to $1,500 for a one-bedroom.

“Affordable (housing) has been getting a lot of press, but in Lewiston, anytime a property comes up for rent, or for sale that’s at market rate, it’s typically quickly snapped up,” he said. Smaller market-rate developments than those proposed by Levesque, Jeffers said, are often filled up before they even officially open.

Jeffers said Levesque’s proposed developments, located just blocks from Longley Bridge, represent a step forward for the city’s Riverfront Island Master Plan, a series of long-term goals to develop property along the river. Among its goals is to make the area more walkable to residents, providing retail development as well as new housing.

Jeffers said one major part of the plan is to connect a trail leading away from Simard-Payne Memorial Park through areas of the city to the end of the Androscoggin Riverside Trail leading into Sunnyside Park.

It is likely, Jeffers said, that this trail will lead in part right past the sites of both projects, with easy access for residents moving into both buildings.

“It’s on one end of the whole continuum,” he said.

For the first project, on Middle Street, the city council still needs to vote on a tax break for Levesque’s proposal. Jeffers said the city has used such allowances for similar developments, and there’s no apparent reason this project should be treated any differently. The council is expected to make its decision at its Sept. 19 meeting.