Construction on Colby's $26M Lockwood Hotel will begin this summer

Courtesy / Baskervill A rendering shows the planned Colby College Lockwood Hotel looking south toward Spring Street. The former Lockwood mill is in the far background.

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By Maureen Milliken

The long-planned construction of Colby College's downtown hotel will begin this summer, a $26 million key piece in the college's investment in Waterville's downtown development.

The Lockwood Hotel will be 48,000 square feet and have 53 rooms. Its name is a nod to the mill complex once called Lockwood Mills, which were named for the innovative engineer who designed them.

It will be built by Landry/French Construction of Scarborough, the same construction manager on the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons three blocks north, at 150 Main St. The project brings the college's total investment into downtown Waterville to $75 million — and $100 million when funding from other sources on some of the projects is included, according to a Colby news release.

“The scale, pace and comprehensive nature of this revitalization effort, of which the hotel is a critical component, is bringing to life the vision for Waterville’s downtown that the city’s business, nonprofit and civic leaders outlined just a few years back,” said Colby President David A. Greene in the release. “We are already seeing positive signs of growth, and this beautiful, modern hotel and Maine-inspired restaurant will attract visitors and area residents, bringing additional activity and economic impact. By naming it The Lockwood, we are honoring Waterville’s deep history in the textile industry and the city’s tradition of innovation and reinvention.”

The hotel, first announced in early 2016, about a year after Colby bought the initial site at 9 Main St., will have a modern look, but also tie into the architecture of the Kennebec River mill city.

"A lot of thought went into the building," Kevin French, executive vice president of Landry/French, said Tuesday. "It's not an office building. It's very unique, very special."

French said about nine months went into researching materials for the building, including the limestone facade and the stone retaining wall and other elements. "They wanted a building that's going to be here 100 years from now," he said.

The name, a nod to the nearly 500,000-square foot, multi-building mill complex just south of the hotel, draws on "Waterville's rich history of industry and innovation and signals the strength of the city's future," a news release from the college said.

Colby said that nod also includes the Lockwood mills' designer, engineer Amos Lockwood, who used innovative design to allow the mill buildings to withstand the movement and vibrations caused by the thousands of spindles required for textile manufacturing. The mills' owner, the Dunn family, named the complex after the engineer.

The Lockwood mills complex, across Spring Street from the hotel site, "was the first major center of industry for Waterville and changed the trajectory of the city at that time," according to Colby College. The complex later became home to the Hathaway Shirt Co., a Waterville-made product revered around the world. While one of the mills, at 10 Water St., has been developed into the Hathaway Creative Center, the other major building on the site, which fronts on Spring Street across from the hotel, has been long empty, its windows broken.

Latest Colby investment

The hotel is the latest investment the college has made in the city of 16,000 since 2015, which, aside from the Alfond Commons, includes purchase and renovation of 173 Main St. into a mixed retail and office building and the planned $20 million development of 93 Main St. into an arts center.

Colby bought the Levine's department store site at 9 Main St. in July 2015 for $200,000. Last year, the college bought the adjacent Camden National Bank building, at 33 Main St., for $750,000. Both buildings have since been razed.

The college also bought a block of buildings across the street from the hotel, which are being renovated for sale, lease or development.

The hotel is designed by Baskervill, a Richmond, Va., firm, and Charlestowne Hotels, of Charleston, S.C., will manage it.

It will have a limestone facade, tying it to Main Street's architecture, "and acknowledging the importance of that material in historic and civic buildings in Maine." The restaurant, which will be called Front & Main, will have glass walls on the ground level and a seasonal patio tied to adjacent Castonguay Square and other outdoor space and restaurants, "enhancing downtown Waterville’s place as a dining destination," the release said.

The total project cost is anticipated to be $26 million, bringing Colby’s total investment in downtown Waterville to more than $75 million. Current and planned downtown projects that include funding from multiple funding sources are expected to total $100 million in investment.

Courtesy / Baskervill

An architectural rendering of the Lockwood Hotel as seen from the south. A seasonal patio will connect to an updated public park and the Silver Street restaurant corridor.

The terraced patio and lawn area on the southern end of the hotel, the site of the former Levine’s department store, which will "create a landscape gateway" to Main Street. The hotel will have entrances on both Main and Front streets. Parking will be on Front Street in a dedicated lot and in a city-owned lot, where spaces have been leased for the hotel.

Front & Main will be a full-service restaurant offering a menu with twists on classic dishes and innovations that focuses on ingredients from Maine farmers and harvesters. The bar and the restaurant will have a distinct entrance from The Lockwood.

Hotel guests will have access to meeting rooms, a fitness room, and suites, double queen, or king rooms. Nationally ranked architecture and interiors firm Baskervill is designing the new building. Charlestowne Hotels, which has an extensive portfolio that includes several independently owned hotels, will operate the hotel as well as the restaurant and bar.

The very south end of the property was once the location of the Crescent Hotel, which began as the Lockwood House in 1880. That building’s owner, Reuben W. Dunn, was an 1868 Colby graduate and later a trustee of the College.

It will be the only hotel in the city's downtown.

Construction is expected to begin this summer and be complete in September, 2020, French said.

While some ledge will have to be blasted for grading issues, he said they don't anticipate issues like the one when the Alfond Commons was being built, when bricks from the urban renewal tear-downs of the late 1960s were found underground at the site.

Colby said that, as its practice, it has made a commitment to working with local vendors and contractors on the project. The college said that the Alfond Commons project brought $14.5 million to local businesses.

The college also plans to pursue LEED Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, as it does with all its new buildings, the release said.