Last Friday, Margaret Moore, manager of the Deck House Sports Tavern, the newly opened sports bar at Seacoast Adventure, took a pause from work to describe the view from the tavern’s hilltop perch.

“You can look out over all of Windham, basically,” Moore said.

It was the Deck House’s fourth day of business. Down the hill and across Route 302, Erik Heyland stood outside next to an “Open” flag, savoring the opening hours of his new, long-awaited Microtel Inn & Suites.

“It feels great to be done,” Heyland said.

The nearly simultaneous openings are coincidental, as the Microtel’s scheduled December opening was delayed repeatedly due to postponed furniture orders and extreme weather. But with the new year-round hotel and tavern, as well as forthcoming improvements at the Anglers Road intersection half a mile to the south, local development officials and business owners say the district just north of North Windham – known as the Gateway district – will continue to see increasing capital investment in coming months and years.

“We’re really looking forward to additional investment and new vitality in that area in Windham,” said Tom Bartell, executive director of the Windham Economic Development Corp. “It’s our gateway to the downtown and our gateway to the Lakes Region and it’s starting to live up to that name with the new hotel and the new restaurant. We’re really pleased with that and we’re looking forward to more investments and improvements along the way.”

Roy Moore, the owner of Seacoast Adventure, says the Deck House, located in a new, two-story, 6,000-foot structure, is just the latest improvement to his 24-year-old amusement park. The park started off as a mini-golf course, but has since added Go Kart racing, a sky swing, a ropes course, and zip-lines. In late December, Moore opened a coffee shop on the first floor of the new building, and on March 14, the Deck House – Moore’s first foray into the restaurant business – opened.

“It’s just a natural thing that we needed to do,” Moore said. “We’ve been growing for the last four or five years. For the increased amount of people that are coming to my park I thought it would be nice to have a sports bar, a facility for them to both eat lunch and dinner at.”

By Memorial Day, Moore will finish new children’s water slides and play structures.

“We’ve got future plans for other water slides, adult slides, and a lazy river to come in at some point in the next two to three years,” Moore said.

Meanwhile, the new, 35,000 square-foot hotel across the street features an indoor pool and a business meeting room. Heyland said he plans to expand the 58-room hotel to 74 rooms within two years.

Half a mile to the south, the WEDC and the town of Windham are preparing to overhaul the intersection of Anglers and Whites Bridge Road, according to Bartell.

“The town is working on redesigning and reconstructing the intersection so that the entrance to Anglers Road off Route 302 will be moved directly across Route 302 from Whites Bridge Road. It will clean up that intersection and make it a true four-way intersection instead of a five- or six-way now,” he said.

According to Bartell, the design and engineering work is under way on the project, with construction slated to begin this fall. Potentially, Bartell said, the overhaul of the district could be the beginning of a move toward more pedestrian-friendly land-use design in the Gateway District and the rest of North Windham.

“We are hoping that the design of the intersection and the new Anglers Road will include items that we’d like to see through the rest of the downtown, including sidewalks and lighting and other things,” Bartell said. “On the other side, toward Seacoast Adventure and the hotel, that’s all part of the Gateway as well. Eventually we hope to take sidewalks right up through that area so people can walk between different places.”

“The goal overall is to really make this a nice gateway into the downtown from the north and west but also that gateway into the Lakes Region area toward Raymond and Casco and Naples,” Bartell added.

According to Moore, a member of the Windham Town Council, the new burst of development may lead to collaboration between the two businesses.

“We’ve talked and hope to be able to work together to put plans together that will allow people to stay at his place and realize savings and go to my place and realize savings,” Moore said. “We haven’t formalized anything yet, but we have talked about it.”

According to Aimee Senatore, executive director of the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, that would be a wise move.

“That would be a fantastic choice because the Microtel doesn’t have a restaurant in it,” Senatore said. “I think that would be really smart.”

“Lots of businesses, ever since they heard that the Microtel was opening, have approached us to get a chance to talk to the decision makers,” Senatore said. “Everyone’s looking to partner with them.”

Maggie Pearson, of Farmington, and Thaley Halpin, of Windham, enjoy nachos with jalapeno cream sauce at the Deck House Sports Tavern, the new hilltop sports bar at the Seacoast Adventure amusement park in North Windham.Staff photos by Ezra SilkThe 58-room Microtel Inn & Suites, Windham’s first hotel, opened Friday, March 20, following years of delays. A week earlier, a new sports bar, the Deckhouse, opened across the road, at the Seacoast Adventure amusement park.