A local realtor is in the process of breathing new life into a cobbled - together Western Avenue building that most Augusta residents have driven past hundreds of times.

According to MaineBiz, Sprague & Curtis real estate agent Jim Pepin (under his business Jim Pepin Properties LLC) has purchased the property for $100,000.  His plan is to turn the property, which has about 25,000 square feet of usable space, into 52 studio and one bedroom apartments.

Pepin currently owns 44 rental units in Augusta, all of which are under contract to a buyer.  His hope is to use what we makes in the sale to develop the 99 Western Avenue building.

The "building" was built in three sections.  The first section was built around 1910.  In 1967, it was briefly home to the newly established University of Maine at Augusta.  While it has been somewhat neglected over the last decade, Pepin says the building is "rock solid" and he does not plant to demolish any of it.

With a lack of rental housing in the Augusta area, we're all very excited to see this project come to fruition.

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