LEWISTON — It’s a hard sight to miss in the city these days: property lots on the cusp of a new beginning.

At sites like the former Martel School, the former Sun Journal building on Pine Street, and the future home of Gendron Active Living Estates off Farwell Street, demolition or site preparation is either underway or completed, and construction on hundreds of housing units will start soon.

In all, Lewiston has 1,325 housing units either under construction or approved to be built, with all but 44 units already permitted — a boom in the development of housing of all kinds that has made Lewiston an important piece of the state’s housing goals, and given local officials a reason to be optimistic about the region’s future.