The city's new train stop, costing over $2 million, will include features that could pay for themselves.

Bids are in for construction of a train station in Saco that is intended to be a model of green building techniques. The City Council is scheduled to choose a winner this month.

Four companies are vying to build the 6,200-square-foot building on the site of the open platform that is now the only facility for passengers boarding and departing Amtrak's Downeaster in Saco.

The City Council will select a company to build the facility at its meeting on Nov. 19. City officials say they hope to have the new station open by late 2008.

The new station will cost between $2 million and $2.5 million, according to City Councilor Les Smith.

It is being funded in part with $500,000 from the sale of a parcel of city-owned land to Saco Island L.P., the development company that bought the nearby complex of old mills and has begun a major redevelopment.

Smith said additional funds will come from the tax increment financing deal between the city and the developer.

The cost of the building is steep, but Smith said a majority of the council feels it is justified by the role the station will play in turning vacant mill buildings into a commercial and residential neighborhood.

"It seems to be the key to the island," he said.

The price of the building will cover many environmentally conscious features, such as a wind turbine and a heating system based on a geothermal heat pump.

Saco officials say that the station is designed for a world where expensive fuel is a fact of life, and that such features will pay for themselves over time.

"I think the days of one-dollar-a-gallon gas are pretty much over," Smith said.

As soon as next month, a 100-foot-tall wind turbine with 25- foot-long blades is expected to go up on the site of the station. City Councilor Eric Cote said the turbine will have the potential to power the entire station, although it remains to be seen whether it can also provide enough electricity for the lights in the parking lot.

He said he believes the city will recover the cost of the $200,000 turbine in 10 to 12 years.

The station design includes a clock tower and a brick facade reminiscent of the nearby mills. The Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce will occupy half of the building and, in exchange for reduced rent, staff the station every day of the week.

Cote said that the station will be a hub for shuttle bus service throughout the region, and that a commercial bus line along Route 1 might stop there eventually.

As with the Portland Transportation Center, he said, the station will likely serve more bus passengers than train passengers.

The wind turbine may be the most visible aspect of the station's green design, but the architect who designed the building, Paul Fowler of Lassel Architects in South Berwick, said the entire building is shaped by a concern for the environment.

For instance, Fowler said, plans for the station call for Maine- made brick and other locally produced materials wherever possible, to minimize fuel-intensive shipping.

The building will have a roof made of recycled stone or rubber made to look like slate, and the studs will be made from recycled metal.

A thick envelope of foam insulation will surround the building and a blanket of cellulose insulation, made from recycled paper, will lie above the ceiling.

If it's anything like the small, experimental wind turbine that the city erected next to its sewage treatment plant this year, Cote said, the station will likely become a destination for those who are interested in alternative energy.

Staff Writer Seth Harkness can be contacted at 282-8225 or at:

sharkness@pressherald.com