Vision of downtown revitalization project includes rail station

BRUNSWICK ? Local officials are seeking public input in shaping development at a vacant downtown site that they hope will eventually include a rail station serving Amtrak passenger trains.

Officials and downtown business owners speculate that the four acres of town-owned land between Maine and Union streets would be ideal for a mixed use development that might support retail shops, a restaurant, offices, residential units, a farmers’ market and a train station.

Nearly two decades ago, the parcel was the site of a revitalization effort that failed when the Maine economy collapsed and the project went bankrupt.

Now, officials are asking residents what type of development they would like to see on the Maine Street Station property.

“What we’ve said is this project is an open book,” said Mat Eddy, Brunswick’s director of economic development. “We don’t have any preconceived notions about what should happen there.”

A complex supported by the town and private funding would restore the property to what it once was ? a bustling center of activity in the downtown. There was a passenger train station on the site for a number of years until it was torn down in the early 1960s.

In the late 1990s, the town purchased the 5.8-acre property after Bowdoin College agreed to pay part of the cost for the right to develop an office building. Bowdoin then built the McLellan administrative building and art faculty studios off Union Street. The remainder of the site has stood vacant as the town waited for the state to develop a passenger rail link from Boston to Brunswick.

Tracy Perez, a policy specialist with the state’s Office of Passenger Transportation, said the state’s ultimate goal is to bring Amtrak service from Portland to Brunswick, but says that probably won’t happen for at least another five years.

The state estimates it will need to spend about $63 million to upgrade 30 miles of track between Portland and Brunswick.

“Our hope is that one day Amtrak passengers will get off a train in Brunswick and board another train bound for Rockland,” Perez said. “Bowdoin College would be a great market. Students could get off a train in the downtown and walk to the campus.”