LEWISTON — The last 12 of 16 vacant and deteriorating buildings on Franklin Property Trust land should face demolition this summer.

The city has gone out to bid looking for a contractor to tear down 12 failing structures along Lincoln Street, south of Cedar Street. A prebid meeting and tour with contractors is scheduled April 29.

“I’ve been walking the site, taking pictures of the structures and making sure I’m ready for the prebid meeting,” Beauparlant said. “I’ve been chatting with people, and they’re pretty excited to get them cleaned up.”

Three of the other vacant buildings on that list, at 390 and 398 Lincoln St. and 2 Summer St., were demolished last fall.

The buildings are mostly residential, including one multifamily structure at 227 Lincoln St., nine single-family homes and some garages.

“If I were doing just one of these buildings, I wouldn’t even have to go out to bid,” Norm Beauparlant, Lewiston’s director of budgeting and purchasing, said. “I could just call up a contractor and see if they were available. For most of those buildings, it will take less than an hour to flatten them.”

The work is part of a larger effort to subdivide 51 acres of trust land around the city and decide the fate of 98 privately-owned structures on that land. Councilors approved a plan in December to let Franklin subdivide those parcels, selling some to willing homeowners.

Most are buildings owned by working-class residents who pay month-to-month rents to the trust for use of the land. The practice began as a benefit for mill employees, allowing them to build affordable, modest homes for less money. Many have been passed down, generation to generation.

Local banks and credit unions regularly loaned money for home improvements and mortgages on the homes until the Great Recession. Without those loans, those homeowners had a more difficult time affording major repairs.

Owners of the 16 failing properties walked away, leaving the buildings vacant and falling apart. According to the deal, the city and Franklin will split the demolition costs for those 16 structures.

Demolition of the 16th building is on hold. Beauparlant said the owners of the building at 7 Willow St., behind the city’s Public Works facility, are still negotiating to fix up and save the structure.

Lincoln Jeffers, Lewiston’s director of economic and community development, said the company’s land surveyor is still working on figuring out fair property lines for the rest of the individual properties.

Beauparlant said the city will have demolished 47 failing structures since 2012 once these 12 are gone.

staylor@sunjournal.com

Up for Destruction

Properties due to be torn down this summer.

7 Lincoln Dr.

227 Lincoln St.

233 Lincoln St.

245 Lincoln St.

248 Lincoln St.

251 Lincoln St.

264 Lincoln St.

266 Lincoln St.

267½ Lincoln St. (garages)

162 Oxford St.

66 River St.

68 River St.

— Source: City of Lewiston