Westbrook is one jump away from shortening Dana Street to pave the way for a 110-unit residential, mixed-use complex in the heart of the city’s downtown. With the northern end of the street going away, a building that is the last sign of a longtime Westbrook-based newspaper that ceased print publication earlier this year, will disappear.

The portion of Dana Street being eliminated has already unanimously passed a pair of City Council readings on July 28 and Aug. 4 with no public comment. The measure now goes to a third reading and a public hearing at 7 p.m. on Aug. 18.

Under a discontinuance, the city will retain infrastructure easements along Dana Street and City Councilor Michael Shaughnessy said at last week’s meeting the discontinuance does not “preclude public access” for the future.

Assistant City Administrator Angela Holmes, before this week’s council meeting, told Westbrook-Gorham Now that discontinuance of a street is not unprecedented. A block away from Dana Street, the city several years ago eliminated the end of Saco Street, between Main Street and William Clarke Drive, that is now the site of the medical facility ConvenientMD Urgent Care.

‘It is not an unheard of occurrence,” Holmes said about discontinuing a street.

The city in April approved the Quaker Lane Associates of Connecticut request to construct three connected buildings at five and six stories on a 3.4-acre parcel at the end of Dana Street on the banks of the Presumpscot River. The project will be located on both sides of the northern end of Dana Street. Quaker Lane also will extend westward the downtown river walk 1,200 feet at no cost to city taxpayers.

The city has pegged the complex cost at $46 million.

Matthew Welter, of Quake Lane, told city officials July 28 that construction would get underway this fall. The old American Journal building, unused for more than two decades, will be bulldozed.

The city also this week in a second and final reading unanimously voted 7-0 to grant Quaker Lane a tax break for the project.

Westbrook, in an agreement explanation from the July 28 council agenda, “contemplates a 50/50 split between the city and developer of taxes generated from increased assessed value attributed to the new development, up to a cumulative total of $5,250,000. Once that amount is reached, the split is eliminated and the city will retain 100% of the taxes on the increased assessed value of the property for the remainder of the 30-year term.”