NORWAY — Three bids from prequalified contractors for the $1.1 million Norway Opera House rehabilitation project were received by the 5 p.m. Aug. 17 deadline.

Dennis Gray of Norway Opera House Corp. said Monday that the bids are now being reviewed by the firm of Dennis Lachman Architects and Planners in Portland. In the next several days, members of the Norway Opera House Corp. and a representative of the town of Norway are expected to meet in the architect’s Portland office as a group to review and award the bid.

The three bidders are H.E. Callahan Construction in Auburn, Ganneston Construction Corp. in Augusta and Great Falls Builders in Gorham, said Gray. All three were prequalified by the architectural firm. As prequalified bidders, the architectural firm determined they were viable contractors for the job and requested them to bid on it.

The bid award will be for the rehabilitation of the six first-floor storefronts in the historic 1894 downtown building. Each will be made energy efficient with updated bathrooms, basement storage and other amenities. It is hoped the spaces will be leased out as soon as construction ends.

A separate bid is also expected to be opened this week for the restoration of the Opera House back wall. The original bricks from the wall were removed during a stabilization project last year and replaced with a brick-like facade. The original bricks have been stored in the basement of the Opera House. If the bids come in low enough and there is enough money left, those bricks will be placed back on the wall during this project, said officials.

Gray said the contractors have all said the work can be completed in 18 to 26 weeks.

The selected contractor will be working under guidelines set by the National Park Service, which regulates buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Place using historic tax credits.

NOHC member Bruce Cook said that by Aug. 27 or 28, the corporation and Norway Savings Bank will have entered into an agreement for a loan that will enable the corporation to use historic tax credits in the project and work will begin.

The Opera House, once the center of community activity, has remained vacant since the partial roof collapse in September 2007.

It has 17,618 square feet and sits on about a quarter of an acre between Main Street and Pennesseewassee Stream in the historic village district.

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