Jonathan and Cynthia Smith of Great Falls Construction are nearing completion of their multi-use Station Square on Railroad Avenue in Gorham.

Gorham natives Jonathan and Cynthia Smith expect Station Square’s residential apartments to be ready for occupancy by the end of March.


Station Square is going up on Railroad Avenue in Gorham.

GORHAM — Tenants could be calling Station Square, a multi-use building nearly a football field long on Railroad Avenue, home by the end of March.

Jonathan and Cynthia Smith, president and vice president, respectively, of Great Falls Construction of Gorham, own the project that will house 33 apartments, a wine bar, a bowling alley, restaurant and six other commercial spaces.

Smith said the apartments are attracting  tenants ages 50 and up, people he described as those planning ahead.

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“Some people are selling their homes and want to move into village environments,” he said.

Station Square is within walking distance of shops, banks, restaurants, Hannaford, offices and a post office. “Now, we have the bus,” Cynthia Smith said about the Husky Line that links Gorham with Westbrook and Portland.

The five-story building is 272 feet long, 80 feet tall at its highest point and  contains about 70,000 square feet.

It has been developed with a nostalgic railroad theme. The site is near where the former Portland and Rochester Railroad line tracks ran through the village. A tower rises on each end of the building and one will feature a special-order clock.

Some 60 to 70 workers are on the job this week and Jonathan Smith said they’ll wrap up the residential portion of the project by the end of March. There are 23 one-bedroom, six two-bedroom and four studio apartments.

Tenants for four of six commercial spaces are either lined up or in negotiations.

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A restaurant, a 12-lane bowling alley named Junction Bowl and an arcade-type game room will be on the ground floor.

Ben Smith, Jonathan’s brother, will own the bowling alley. Teams for a bowling league are already forming, Cynthia Smith said.

A wine bar called the Grand Central will have space on the fourth and fifth floors. A Gorham native, Karen Nason, is moving back to town from Hoboken, N.J., to own and operate the bar. She and her husband will live in an apartment at Station Square.

Nason, who has owned businesses in New York City and Hoboken, said she’s designing the bar, which will feature a baby grand piano, to look like Grand Central Station. “It’s going to be fantastic,” she said.

Nason said she and her husband would arrive in Gorham as soon as the Smiths have their apartment ready.

The Smiths will have a booth this spring at Gorham Business Exchange’s annual Marketplace on Saturday, March 30, on the University of Southern Maine campus to showcase Station Square to the public.

The couple, who met at Shaw Junior High School and have been married for 30 years, founded Great Falls Construction in 1988. They bought the land for Station Square, near their Mechanic Street offices, in 2007.

Robert Lowell can be reached at 780-9089 or email rlowell@keepmecurrent.com


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