The new owner of the former bagel shop on Edgecomb's Route 1 plans to tear it down and build an office to rent condominiums. It's the first in a series of projects Tony Casella of View Development said he hopes to carry out on a 10-acre lot near the Sheepscot Harbour Resort.

Other projects include a restaurant and, if there's a demand, a hotel, Casella said. He is also considering an indoor water park that he would want to put either on that same acreage or inside the resort. If it's inside, it would not be open to people outside the resort, he said.

The Edgecomb Planning Board is set to discuss View Development's proposed rental office Thursday, Oct. 4. The meeting at town hall starts at 6:30 p.m.

Casella named the corporation after the second of two phases of condominium projects by Edgecomb Development. Casella said he has bought three unfinished homes in the “View” portion, and the development rights to 12 other lots in the View.

The restaurant near the rental office would be a Beef 'O' Brady's, from the chain of family-style restaurants, Casella said. He chose that company because it will let him expand the menu for seafood and use exterior colors that will fit Edgecomb's rural character, he said.

Showing me around the Route 1 lot he recently bought from the Bank of Maine, Casella said the rental office would be south of the former bagel shop, which would be torn down and replaced with the restaurant. The restaurant's front will be about the length the shop was, but the new building will extend back further, he said.

Next to the rental office and facing Route 1, a 10-foot fountain will have water coming out in layers, Casella said. A rock wall has already been added around the spot for the fountain. Another rock wall is planned to block the property's northern Route 1 entrance. And a new driveway would go to Eddy Road so resort-goers can avoid using Route 1.

While Casella plans for the rental office to use an existing well and septic system, he said he'll need public water and sewer access for the restaurant. It's not clear how long it could take to get access. The lone, existing sewer pumping station can't take any added burden, Selectman Stuart Smith said.

What to do when more infrastructure was needed has been an open question for years in Edgecomb.

Opinions have clashed over whether or not the town needs to fund that infrastructure through the existing tax incentive, or “Tax Increment Financing” (TIF) plan in that part of town.

Those funds have been tapped in recent years to replace the town's fire station. Smith, who chairs Edgecomb's utility committee, maintains that a developer who needs infrastructure should pay an impact fee to cover or help cover those costs.

Casella said he understands the town's situation and is “willing to help.”

At a special town meeting November 19, selectmen plan to ask voters for about $24,000 in TIF funds for engineers to compare building a new pumping station with taking over and upgrading the existing one. It's owned by the Sheepscot Harbour Village & Resort Condominium Association.

The analysis has been planned for some time and is not being driven by Casella's plans, Smith said.