NORWAY — Town Manager David Holt said Tuesday that he and Norway Opera House Corp. President Dennis Gray will meet with the state’s Office for Community Development grant program representative this week to discuss a contract for the $400,000 grant to restore the first-floor storefronts on the Norway Opera House.
“I have asked both the select board and the Norway Opera House Corp. to think about what should be in an agreement for a transfer of ownership. I have informed Norway Savings Bank of the Norway Opera House Corp. intent to go ahead with the loan and the tax credits,” Holt said.
The plan is to transfer ownership of the historic building on Main Street from the town to the nonprofit corporation so it can apply for the matching grant loan and available tax credits.
The pair will meet with Terry Ann Stevens, who has been assigned as the town’s program development manager from the Office of Community Development for the project’s development phase.
The town received word last week that it was selected to receive funding through the Communities for Maine’s Future Bond Program that will help continue its efforts to save the 1894 three-story brick building in the heart of the downtown historic district.
The $400,000 match will be used to make the storefronts of the Opera House usable again. They were vacated after a partial roof collapse in September 2007, resulting in the building being flooded. The upper floors have been vacant for decades.
The town took the building by eminent domain last year from a private owner after he failed to adequately stabilize the building, which was considered unsafe to the public and surrounding buildings.
Holt said the plan is to work with the Norway Opera House Corp. to use historic tax credits in partnership with Norway Savings Bank to further stretch the funding dollars.
“It’s a validation of all the work that has gone into saving and rehabbing that historic building in the heart of Norway’s Main Street,” Norway Downtown President Andrea Burns said.
She praised the work done by Holt and many other individuals and organizations in securing the funding, including Norway Downtown, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving its historic downtown business district. The organization played a significant role both legislatively and educationally, beginning with the award-winning threatened buildings forums they developed several years ago to bring public awareness to Norway’s threatened historic downtown buildings, she said.
Norway Downtown is a member of the Maine Development’s Foundation’s Main Street Program, which she said was a factor in the approval of the grant.
“We have been involved from the beginning, legislatively,” Burns said.
Burns called the venture “scary and exciting” and said the town has come a long way in a short time to get to this point.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
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- Six first-floor commercial spaces, including this one, in the Norway Opera House on Main Street will be rehabilitated using a $400,000 grant to the town.
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