The owner is still bitter over how

the city handled

the removal.
By Kathryn Skelton
Staff Writer

Mickey Amlotte wanted a spot where people could find the meaning of life. Or at least ride a mechanical bull for a buck.

But the ultra-hip nightclub at 49 Main St., Siddhartha’s, didn’t last. Neither did the building’s turn as an exotic dance club, gay bar or tattoo parlor.

The last prominent – and frequently provocative – site marked for demolition to clear up Lewiston’s gateway and image fell Wednesday.

Amlotte didn’t watch. The 54-year-old is still bitter the city took his property.

Not that it came as a complete surprise.

About four years ago, Amlotte saw Lewiston’s master plan for the Bates Mill district.

His building was missing from the picture. He got the hint.

Amlotte said he waited for negotiations to start, but they never did. Over the last Fourth of July weekend, the City Council sent a registered letter alerting him that they’d be taking his building by eminent domain. He didn’t get it. The proceedings went on without him.

‘Something drastic’

Amlotte’s building, an awkward three-story structure with a long stucco front, was originally split.

The taller end started as a hotel, the shorter end as a gas station.

Amlotte bought the Forty Niner Hotel in 1979. He hired exotic dancers from Boston and named the place Julie’s, after his then-wife. The only competition was four doors up Main Street at the Hotel Holly, a longtime strip club. It was a friendly rivalry, Amlotte said. Patrons would walk back and forth, scoping out girls, drinking drinks.

Amlotte bought the flat building next door in 1982 and joined them.

Siddhartha’s was born

He named the nightclub after a book by author Hermann Hesse about a man who searched the world for the meaning of life. Siddhartha was the name of the book and main character.

After a successful run, Siddhartha’s closed in 1986. It had a last gasp in 1987 when Amlotte resorted to dancers again, guys and gals.

When he’d fused the buildings, Amlotte reinforced the roof with steel beams to support an open-air restaurant. The view would have been fabulous, he muses today. But there was never the money to do that.

The building sat empty until 1990 when a pizzeria, and later a tattoo parlor, moved in.

‘Thieves in the night’

Amlotte was counting on the income from 49 Main St., his only rental property, for retirement. He grossed $3,100 a month there, “a good income for me.”

He fought the city’s original offer for his property and eventually got $265,000. But after lawyers’ fees, and paying off the mortgage, Amlotte said he only has $148,000 left.

He’s still miffed about not getting more notice, or more money. His appraiser placed the value of the building higher, but Amlotte said he didn’t have the money to fight the city in court.

“Bottom line: They took my building,” he said. “They acted like thieves in the night.”

City Administrator Jim Bennett is sympathetic, to a point.

“I can fully understand him being angry and not liking the fact we took his property,” he said. However, the final settlement was more than twice what the building was appraised for tax purposes. He thinks it was fair.

Eight buildings have been torn down to make room for the city’s improved gateway. A new park will be slightly larger than the space left by Amlotte’s building.

It’s planned to have a fountain, plenty of greenery, the cupola from the Libbey Mill and a “Welcome to Lewiston” sign.

Bennett said he’s aware the new open view of Mill No. 5 is less than spectacular, but that buildings like Amlotte’s had to be torn down to attract interest in that facility. You can’t ask someone to invest $15 million or $20 million in the mill and say, “You’ve got to picture these buildings aren’t here.”

He’s not sure if he would have handled the process differently with Amlotte, were it to happen again. “Sometimes you can’t do it the way you’d like to do it as a person,” Bennett said.

kskelton@sunjournal.com