LEWISTON — Nathan Szanton doesn’t expect everyone to have faith that his Lisbon Street building project will be a success.

The Portland developer has a significant track record of turning ugly lots into thriving apartment spaces and on Thursday, he was back in Lewiston to show evidence of those earlier successes.

There’s the hideous single-story parking garage on State Street in Portland, for example, that was transformed into an elegant three-story brick apartment complex in 2003.

There’s the old Biddeford mill with crumbling bricks and shattered windows that was fixed up, beautified and turned into a stately complex of 66 apartments.

And of course, in 2012, Szanton opened his 48 units in Bates Mill No. 2 at Canal and Chestnut streets. The building has been full since, and there is a waiting list.

One by one, Szanton showed off his slides — the ugly gas stations, bland parking lots and decrepit garages — all transformed by Szanton’s team and turned into coveted living space.

Here in Lewiston, locals are hopeful he can work the same magic on an empty row of dusty lots across from Forage Market, a spot so forlorn and desolate, some have taken to calling it “Lewiston’s missing tooth.”

“I really thought it would be years before anything happened down there,” said Richard Speers, one of about two dozen who attended an informal meeting Thursday night at DaVinci’s Eatery.

As it turns out, construction could begin in June of next year on the plan to fill the 175-foot-long chunk of real estate with a 63-unit apartment complex. Renting could begin as early as the summer of 2018 and the Szanton team already has a tentative name for the space.

The space between 159 and 177 Lisbon St. may soon be known as “The Hartley Block,” according to renderings unveiled Thursday night. The name would honor Marsden Hartley, a renowned modernist painter who worked out of a studio at 171 Lisbon St. near the turn of the 20th century.

The Szanton team also offered up a variety of architectural renderings of what they hope will become a reality. The images show a vibrant, bustling Lisbon Street, with retail space at floor level and neat rows of apartments above.

In the renderings, it appears as though several new buildings have been erected. In fact, Szanton said, it is only one.

“We wanted to avoid having a space that looks like a cheese box,” Szanton said. By using bay windows and by off-setting a section of the building, “it kind of takes on the appearance of three separate buildings.”

Szanton said 41 of the units would be set aside for lower-income or “workforce” housing for people earning between $20,000 and $34,000 per year. The remaining 22 units would rent at market rate.

Szanton said he expects the apartments to be popular rentals for retail clerks, hospital workers, child care workers and seniors on fixed incomes.

Plans originally called for 71 units in the complex. The Szanton team had to whittle that number down because of new MaineHousing laws.

“We’ve been trying to incorporate the new rules into the project,” said Amy Cullen, development officer with the Szanton Co.

The company also won’t know until December whether its bid for an affordable housing tax credit is successful.

Those who attended Thursday’s neighborhood meeting seemed unanimously supportive of the project. There were no complaints or major concerns, although there were suggestions.

One man who works on Lisbon Street suggested that the planned building’s street level needs some kind of characteristic that stands out.

“Something with a little drama,” he said. “Something that gets people talking.”

A few were worried about parking. As it happens, a deal was in the works wherein the people who rent units in the new complex would be provided space in the adjacent parking garage.

Another wondered who would manage the apartment complex once it is completed. According to Cullen, the Szanton Co. plans to keep it in the family rather than hiring someone to manage the building.

“These properties are kind of like our children,” she said. “It would be hard to turn them over.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect the housing proposal is for “workforce” housing.