WATERVILLE — A new study commissioned by Colby College shows the private institution has contributed more than $1.3 billion in economic activity in the Waterville area, and more than $2.5 billion in Maine overall, since 2019.

Those figures, Colby and Waterville leaders said Thursday at a presentation of the study, show the college’s investments in the city over the past decade have paid off.

“You can really start to feel the difference,” Colby College President David Greene said. “The mayor (Michael Morris) and I were just talking about how you can feel the difference in Waterville, but it’s also important to measure the difference. Are things really changing or not?”

The study, completed by Camoin Associates, examined the college’s impact from 2019–24 and follows a “baseline” report of Colby’s economic impact from 2014–18, using the same methodology.

Since 2019, Colby has spent $265 million on capital improvements, including new residence halls and new community venues, including the Paul J. Schupf Art Center that opened in downtown Waterville in 2022.

Before that, there was the pandemic-era construction of the $26 million Lockwood Hotel, the 8-acre Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center and the $25.5 million Alfond Commons dormitory. After that came the $95 million Gordon Center for Creative and Performing Arts and, soon, another residence hall on campus is slated to open.

Those efforts, the report said, contributed $427 million in total economic output across Maine, between direct construction costs, jobs and the impact of the new buildings on Waterville and surrounding communities. Greene said Colby prioritized using Maine-based construction and development companies, even though they are often more expensive, to reinvest in the local economy.

And many of those projects — especially in the downtown Art Center and the recreation building on campus — helped spur a notable increase in visitors and visitor-related economic activity, Greene said. About 600,000 visitors over the past six years spent nearly $100 million in the Waterville area, the report said. Colby’s student population of about 2,400 alone spent nearly $50 million.

Beyond Colby’s prolific construction record over the past decade, the college remains Kennebec County’s second-largest private employer, behind only MaineGeneral and ahead of regional powerhouses Central Maine Power and Huhtamaki, which produces consumer goods packaging. Over the six-year period of the report, Colby added 104 jobs and increased its employees’ average salary to about $88,000.

That’s where most of the economic impact of the college has come from, Greene said. Colby’s 1,000 employees supported an additional 107 jobs per year in the Waterville area just from their spending in the area. In all, including direct wages to Colby employees, the college’s workforce generated $1.77 billion in economic output statewide.

Greene said Colby choosing to continue those projects and to keep hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic helped Waterville recover sooner — and stronger — than many other communities.

“Waterville took off after the pandemic,” he said. “And it took off because businesses were able to come in. The arts buildings were built, new activity was happening down here on Main Street. The streetscape had been redone. One thing after another that had begun to really change the city, and then the population started growing.”

That population growth is one of the clearer signs that Colby’s investments in Waterville have been working, Greene said. While not back to its 1960s peak, Waterville’s 2024 population of 17,336 exceeds any figure from the past 40 years.

Much of Thursday’s discussion, though, centered on how to ensure Waterville’s longtime residents don’t get left behind in the process. Ward 4 Councilor Rebecca Green said businesses and new residents moving in can be a good sign for Waterville — but figuring out how current Waterville residents fit into the puzzle is just as important.

“What about the people who do live here?” Green said. “Because we haven’t seen the housing stock rise, we’re not quite seeing people build single-family homes the way we could — so how do we get that moving?”

Greene, the college president, said the tide of Colby’s development can and should help lift all boats.

If developers can see Waterville as a destination — a place to invest in, and a place where that investment will be rewarded — housing stock will increase and job opportunities will improve, he said.

Garvan Donegan, president and CEO of the Central Maine Growth Council, said building an entrepreneurial spirit and culture in Waterville helps grow businesses and adds jobs to the economy, and Colby’s investment is helping that happen.

Morris, the mayor, believes this report will help recruit those developers and investors to Waterville, starting with the city’s housing summit next month.

“We can see the fruits of the labor that’s happened, but to have the data to back it up for the folks that aren’t here to see it day to day I think is huge,” Morris said.

The next steps for growing Waterville’s reputation and marking it a destination for visitors and people hoping to settle and start families, he said, are collaborative ones — between Colby and the city, between businesses and nonprofits, and between old residents and newcomers.

“OK, great, you want to do that? There’s more resources that’ll come,” Morris said. “If we’re not bringing in more people to help offset that, we’re going to cripple the people that are here now. That’s the challenge.”