Luxury Apartments & Rooftop Bar Could Come To Downtown Augusta

A few years before the pandemic rolled into Central Maine, the revitilization of downtown Augusta really started to ramp up.  Local business people were buying up the buildings along Water Street and they began to rehab them.  They turned the upper floors into really nice apartments and renovated the street level units into great retail and restaurant spaces.

Fortunately for Central Maine, these updates did not stop during the pandemic.  They continued at a slower pace, but they did continue.

Earlier this year, we got word that Augusta's "castle", The Olde Federal Building, was for sale.  Currently, it houses a series of retail spaces and a variety of offices, including some state and federal government offices.  As of July 2022, the building was about 50% occupied.  It is currently listed on the Colliers website for $2,650,000

Now, it looks as though the 120+ year old building could see new life as luxury apartments and a rooftop bar.

According to the KJ, The Goldman Group, a real estate developer from Boston, presented a plan before the Augusta Planning Board a few weeks ago.  In the end, the planning board wanted more details.

According to the article, the plan calls for the building to be renovated into 30 luxury apartment units.  Three of these would be studio apartments, there would be 16 one-bedrooms, 9 two-bedrooms, and 2 three-bedrooms. Other spaces would be set aside for a few small retail spots, a fitness center, and for a rooftop bar that would overlook the Kennebec River.

Take a look inside the building, which was added to the Registry of Historic Places in 1974

For nearly a century and a half, the Olde Federal Building has been the most recognizable part of downtown Augusta.  According to Wikipedia, the building was designed by Mifflin E. Bell.  Made of granite, the building spent many decades being used as the city's post office and as a courthouse.  More recently, it has been used as an office building.