Sept. 06–LEWISTON — A new Lincoln Street hotel will take in its first guests Wednesday.

Owner Chris Thompson confirmed that the Hampton Inn will begin taking guests Sept. 10.

“We wanted to get open as early as possible into the Bates College school year and certainly before the Dempsey Challenge,” Thompson said. “That was a big driver for us, to be able to capture some of that great early-fall Maine business.”

A grand opening is scheduled later this fall.

Work on the $12 million, 93-room hotel began a year ago.

“You can book a room right now, if you want,” said Lincoln Jeffers, Lewiston’s director of Economic and Community Development. “I know, because I went online and checked, and they are taking reservations, beginning Sept. 10.”

The hotel is in the heart of Lewiston’s Riverfront Island, on Lincoln Street near Main Street. It is the former location of the R.I. Mitchell building and the Vincent Fruits building.

The four-story hotel is built right up to Lincoln Street, with parking and support between the street and the river. The bulk of the rooms will face north, looking out at the Great Falls.

Jeffers said the hotel is key to revitalizing Lewiston’s downtown. The Riverfront Island Master Plan, adopted by the city in 2012, calls for a large hotel at that exact location.

“A big part of the Riverfront Master Plan is just getting people down there,” Jeffers said. “It’s just getting people engaged with the area, the river, the canals. The hotel has 93 rooms. It’s a good middle-market brand so it will do that.”

Jeffers said the hotel does not have restaurant, and that works well for downtown.

“It means that anyone staying there will want to eat at DaVinci’s, at Fishbones and Pedro’s,” Jeffers said. “So it will have great benefit to the restaurants in the neighborhood.”

The property is owned by Lincoln Street Hoteliers, LLC and will be operated by LodgeSys Inc., the company that operates the Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel in Portsmouth, N.H.

The project was financed by Machias Savings Bank and a United States Department of Agriculture loan guarantee. Developers paid the city $500,000 to purchase the lots, just south of Yvon’s Supersonic Car Wash.

Councilors approved the development plan and 10-year Tax Increment Finance district for the project in December 2011. The tax-incentive plan returns $1 million in property taxes back to developers over 10 years.

staylor@sunjournal.com