An open house at the Nulty Street building last month resulted in a wide range of Bridgton residents’ suggestions on how to use the site, from yoga classes to farmers markets to cat cafes. Contributed / Aaron Berger

A construction worker quits his job and walks into a bar.

While that could be the setup for a joke, in Bridgton it kicked off a community-driven effort to revitalize a downtown building. On Saturday, the early results of that effort can be seen at 4 Nulty St. during the Bridgton Arts & Culture Art Walk.

Five years ago, William Holmes, owner and head chef of the Standard Gastropub in Bridgton, was looking to “broaden his horizons” and purchased the 8,000-square-foot property that houses the Redemption Depot. While the plan is to keep the redemption center going, that operation doesn’t take up the whole building, and Holmes has long aspired to make use of that extra space.

The 8,000 square-foot building on Nulty Street in Bridgton is home to the Redemption Depot, but there’s plenty of leftover space. Contributed / Aaron Berger

“Growing up in the Bridgton-Harrison area, I was aware of this property that had been here my whole life. A huge, unique piece of architecture downtown,” Holmes told Lakes Region Weekly. “We renovated a bunch of the building, updated electrical and some of the major systems, and we were able to host one really incredible art show in 2019.”

Holmes thought the successful show was a sign of things to come, but then the COVID-19 pandemic caused everyone to press the pause button.

The building’s fate was on the back burner until this February when Aaron “Bear” Berger walked into the Gastropub. Berger had just quit a job in construction, he said, and was looking for office space to resume working as a freelance consultant.

“I started talking with Will about how it’d be great to have a spot to set up and do some co-working,” he said.

“I said, ‘I don’t know of any, but I do have this space that I’m trying to turn into something like that,'” Holmes added. “That was kind of the infancy of the conversation.”

Berger also saw the potential of the Nulty Street building and he and Holmes teamed up to figure out what exactly to do with it. Berger’s educational background in community development gave rise to a series of community brainstorming sessions at the Gastropub, held between March and May, to get residents engaged.

Standard Gastropub owner William Holmes owns the building and says he hopes to see it put to good use for the community. Drew Johnson / The Forecaster

“A big thing the community has been saying they want is to meet new people and share ideas and work creatively on projects,” Berger said. “We left those brainstorm sessions being like, ‘Well, we just achieved that.'”

A wide array of opinions were shared at the sessions, he said, and even more came at an open house at the building on May 27 via a “What If” activity where attendees wrote their ideas for the building’s use on sticky notes and stuck them to the wall.

Residents’ ideas included hosting farmers’ markets; craft shows; cat cafes; dog bars; music, yoga, and dance lessons; and community workshops on topics ranging from diversity and inclusion to health and nutrition. A major theme Holmes and Berger have heard was the desire for programs for young people, from children to young adults.

The building is a stop along the Bridgton Arts & Culture Art Walk on Saturday and, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., they will be incorporating a mixture of these ideas.

Their offerings include 16-year-old musician Evan Holden who will play some original songs as well as some covers from 10 a.m. to noon. It will be the first time he performs as a solo act, Berger said.

From 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., several local artists will display and sell their work.

Meanwhile, a scalable “small office environment” has been installed, Holmes said, and is expected to be available to rent for personal use or as a meeting space in the near future.

But there is still plenty of space in the building. The largest space can be scaled from anywhere between 1,600 and 3,200 square feet depending on how much space the Redemption Depot uses, which varies seasonally.

“We’re still trying to figure out what the project is called,” Holmes said. “Everything about this, we’re really trying to keep it as organic as possible. It’s not built around really having titles or a specific framework. We have a site. From there, it’s really just figuring out how to fill it.”

Holmes and Berger are hoping to hold more brainstorming sessions this summer. For more info, email allroadshub@gmail.com.