BREWER – Representatives of the Muddy Rudder outlined their plans for a new restaurant on the city’s waterfront during a press conference Friday at City Hall.

During the event, officials from Maine Course Hospitality Group said the Muddy Rudder in Brewer, slated to open in mid-June, will be modeled after the original one on Route 1 in Yarmouth, overlooking the Cousins River.

“I’m just happy that the Muddy Rudder is going to drop anchor in Brewer,” said Councilor Manley DeBeck Jr. after the official announcement, attended by the entire council and members of the City Hall administrative team.

Proposed is a 220-seat restaurant, with outdoor dining for 40 to 50 patrons on the patio in warm months, said President Jack Crawford. Plans are to hire 75-100 near full-time and part-time employees and four or five salaried managers.

The restaurant will occupy the former Harborside restaurant, just off the Chamberlain Bridge.

The Muddy Rudder’s specialty is fresh seafood. While the menu will be essentially the same as Yarmouth’s, the decor for the Brewer site will reflect the history and heritage of the Penobscot River.

Mayor Michael Celli said that when he learned Muddy Rudder was coming, his taste buds were first to react. On a more serious note, he said he was pleased to see a restaurant of that caliber choose such a high visibility site.

The restaurant’s future home is one of the first things visitors see as they cross the Joshua Chamberlain Bridge into Brewer. The site also is located at the convergence of Wilson, North Main and South Main streets, three of the city’s primary travel routes.

Peter Anastos, an owner, said persistent recruiting efforts factored into the decision to set up shop here, but said the project wouldn’t have worked without an ideal site. He got his first glimpse of the property on the Internet.

“It almost screamed out ‘Muddy Rudder’ when I looked at it,” he said.

The sale of the former Harborside property marks the end on an era for the heirs of F.H. Drummond, one of the area’s prominent lumber barons, according to Carol Epstein of Epstein Commercial Realty, who brokered the sale

Franklin Hayden Drummond, who lived during the lumber boom years of the early to mid-1800s, owned large parcels of land on the Brewer and Bangor waterfronts, as well as a great deal of timberland in several Maine counties, according to the heirs’ representing agent. At the time of the sale, only three heirs – two individuals and one trust – remained.

In Brewer, the Drummond holdings stretched from the Harborside site to the Dead River Co. offices on South Main Street. The Brewer holdings include, among other things, a factory where wooden packing boxes were made. The historic brick building still stands, the agent said.

According to published reports, the Drummond estate was among Brewer’s top 20 tax payers as recently as 1995, with land assets valued at more than $1.8 million.

Over the years, however, the holdings were sold off. The last of the heirs’ timberlands and the camp lots on Schoodic Lake in Milo were sold in the 1990s. The family sold off its land in Bangor, Brewer and Hampden most recently.

“It was a family business decision,” the agent said. “You’ve got nostalgia and practicality. Our choices were to keep on with the leasing situation or sell the property.”

Brewer is home to many restaurants, most of which offer either fast-food or family-style, diner cuisine.

The Muddy Rudder will bring to Brewer a large upscale restaurant, something it hasn’t had since the Cottage Restaurant closed several years ago, Councilor Larry Doughty noted.

During their visit to Brewer on Friday, Crawford and Anastos said much work must be done before the restaurant opens. The outside will be spruced up and landscaped. The restaurant building’s interior will be overhauled, the smaller building in the driveway will be demolished and the main driveway will be moved back from the intersection.