Augusta’s Olde Federal Building can be redeveloped into luxury apartments with rooftop bars | Tech Reddy

After years on the market, the Olde Federal Building at the corner of Water and Winthrop Streets in Augusta may change hands and be redeveloped into luxury apartments. A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Nov. 15. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA – U Olde Federal Buildingan architectural icon of downtown Augusta, could be reshaped by new owners under a proposal going before the city’s planning board Tuesday.

The Goldman Group, a Boston-based real estate investment, redevelopment and management group, has filed a conditional use application with the Augusta Planning Board for the adaptive reuse of the landmark building into luxury apartments with a wide range of amenities and retail spaces.

The building at 295 Water St., currently listed for sale for $2.65 million, has not changed hands. The Goldman Group and seller Vickery-Downing Associates, with an office in Yarmouth, declined to comment for this story.

“This speaks to the arrival of regional investment,” said Keith Luke, director of economic development for the city of Augusta. “We see investors radiating from markets like Boston and central Massachusetts and Portsmouth (New Hampshire) and Portland. These are exactly the type of properties that represent a return opportunity for investment that they cannot find in other places now, because they have all been renewed.

The building, made of gray granite and built over three and a half years, is considered one of the finest surviving examples of Romanesque architecture that was popularized by HH Richardson, a prominent architect of the late 19th century based in the Boston area.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

“There is no other building in central Maine that looks like it,” Michael Hall, executive director of the Augusta Downtown Alliance said. “Culturally and architecturally, it’s very significant.”

The building previously served as a federal office building and courthouse and also houses a United States Postal Service office. It was sold by the federal government to a private owner after the new, larger Edmund S. Muskie Federal Building on Western Avenue was built in 1966.

While it’s mostly empty now, it rents office space to a number of nonprofit groups, including the Augusta Downtown Alliance and has some retail space.

As explained in the application, the developers propose to convert about half of the building into 30 luxury residential units – three studios, 16 one-bedrooms, 9 two-bedrooms and two three-bedrooms. The existing US Postal Service office will remain and two other spaces will be reserved for a small grocery story and a second street retail space.

Staff file photo by Joe Phelan Scott Bernier climbs the steps in the Olde Federal Building on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 in downtown Augusta. Most of the large building on Water Street was occupied by the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service Institute for Public Sector Innovation at that time. AP

The developers also plan to include a fitness center, a large lobby, a mail room, storage lockers, bike storage, a pet grooming station and a 3,450-square-foot rooftop and bar overlooking the river Kennebec with a pergola, hot tub and fireplace that will be available to tenants during the day and available to be rented by a retail tenant in the evening.

Views from inside Augusta’s Olde Federal Building at 295 Water St. are seen to have been included in a city conditional use application. The proposal calls for parts of the building, with 43,710 square feet of total interior space, to be renovated into a luxury mixed-use complex with 30 residential units and street-level retail space. Photo courtesy of The Goldman Group LLC

The application states that the developers intend to preserve the historic character and that the living units are expected to be renovated to modern, high quality standards.

Because the lower floors of the building are in the flood plain, they will not be converted into living space.

Hall said redeveloping the building would be significant in several ways, including increasing the residential populations of the historic downtown that can support businesses that have moved into street-level retail space.

“The population down here is basically starving for a place where they can go get groceries,” he said. “Anything we can get that adds to the atmosphere of the neighborhood is a great thing.”

Currently, the number of renovated apartments in the city center is around 80; this project will bring this number to more than 100.

Luke said that the vacancy rate in the historic center of the city is zero, so the demand for apartments like those proposed remains strong.

The Goldman Group has experience in renovating buildings, Luke said. Most have been in Massachusetts, with additional projects in Rhode Island and Florida. This would be the first Maine project for the vertically integrated real estate company.

The Planning Board meets at 7 p.m., Tuesday in the Lecture Room at City Center Plaza at 16 Cony St. The meeting will also be streamed live and links to recordings are available on the Planning Board website.

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