WATERVILLE — A multi-dealer antiques business is moving into the first floor of the Hathaway Creative Center on Water Street with plans to host a soft opening July 22 and a grand opening September 23 and 24.

Hathaway Mill Antiques will occupy 10,000 square feet of the building facing Water Street, in the area where the annual Sukeforth Festival of Trees is held during the holidays. Annette Sukeforth Marin, a festival organizer, said she and others are looking for a space to relocate that event.

Antiques dealers move their wares into the Hathaway Creative Center on Water Street in Waterville. Hathaway Mill Antiques, a sister to Brunswick Mill Antiques in Brunswick, is run by North River Hathaway, a part of the New York-based development company that bought the Hathaway complex for $20 million in February. Contributed photo

Antiques dealers move their wares into the Hathaway Creative Center on Water Street in Waterville. Hathaway Mill Antiques, a sister to Brunswick Mill Antiques in Brunswick, is run by North River Hathaway, a part of the New York-based development company that bought the Hathaway complex for $20 million in February. Contributed photo

The new antiques business is a sister shop of Cabot Mill Antiques in Brunswick, according to Deborah Stufflebeam, who manages the Brunswick shop and will manage Hathaway Mill Antiques.

The Waterville shop will mirror the Brunswick shop in many ways, not only in how it is set up but also with the same quality of antique merchandise and professional, friendly sales staff, according to Stufflebeam.

“Hathaway Mill Antiques is spacious, clean, bright and sunny with wide aisles, air conditioned, and has ample parking,” she said. “We offer a variety of period antique furniture and accessories up to mid-century modern pieces. We are a multi-dealer shop offering quality antique furniture, art, textiles, glassware, jewelry, pottery, books, china, lighting, stained glass windows, baskets, early general store displays and the list goes on and on.”

The business will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week, according to Stufflebeam.

The City Council last week voted 6-0 to issue a secondhand dealer’s license to North River Hathaway LLC, doing business as Hathaway Mill Antiques at 10 Water St., Suite 101. The business email is www.hathawaymillantiques.com and the phone number, 877-0250.

North River Hathaway is part of Waterfront Maine, a New York-based real estate development firm which bought the Hathaway Creative Center from Hathaway Mill PO LLC in February for $20 million. North River owns the Brunswick mill, known as the Fort Andross Mill, as well as other mills in Portland, Boston and New York. Fort Andross Mill formerly was known as the Cabot Mill.

Kimberly N. Lindlof, president and chief executive officer of the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, said Monday that she plans to have lunch this week with one of the Hathaway building’s owners and is excited to have the antiques business come to Waterville.

“I think it’ll really enhance the offerings in downtown Waterville,” Lindlof said.

While there is no antiques shop per se in Waterville, the Fairfield Antiques Mall is just up U.S. Route 201 from the city and Lindlof likes the prospect of having antiques businesses move into the corridor.

“We’re very excited about seeing that open up,” she said. “A lot of people are into antiquing in the region, and we think this is going to be a plus for the city of Waterville.”

The former C.F. Hathaway & Co. shirt factory was renovated several years ago and transformed into retail offices with 67 high-end apartments on the upper floors in an effort that helped jump-start downtown revitalization projects.

In the late 1800s, the mill manufactured cotton, and starting in 1881, Hathaway made shirts in the building. The business closed in 2003. Rhode Island developer Paul Boghossian later redeveloped the building for about $30 million. Tenants now include MaineGeneral Health, Cengage Learning and CGI Group, formerly Collaborative Consulting.

Stufflebeam said the Brunswick mill owners saw the potential in Waterville with its revitalization efforts, just as they saw the potential in Brunswick when they purchased that mill 30 years ago.

“They can foresee that Waterville is going to be a really, really booming, vibrant college community,” she said.

Colby College is spearheading a $50 million-plus downtown revitalization effort by building a $25 million residential complex on Main Street expected to open in August 2018. It also is renovating the former Hains Building at 173 Main St., and that project is expected to be completed this summer. The building will house CGI Group on the upper floors, Colby offices on the second floor and two retail businesses on the first floor.

Colby also plans to build a boutique hotel in the former Levine’s Clothing Store lot at the southeast end of Main Street, just north of the Hathaway complex.

Stufflebeam, who has managed Cabot Mill Antiques the last 14 years, said the Waterville antiques business will have the ability to expand to 12,000 square feet in the mill building. Dealers started moving items into the Hathaway space over the weekend and will continue for the next two weeks. They are from all over New England, she said.

She said Hathaway Mill expects to hire three or four part-time people.

“I’ll go between the two places and we do have sales staff man registers and help out on the floor,” she said.

Amy Calder — 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @AmyCalder17

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