Rock Row (née The Ridge, née Dirigo Plaza) | Westbrook, ME

Color me skeptical....But they weren't even able to find tenants for the much smaller office space closer to Market Basket....165,000 SF of office is a hard sell in 2025. Particularly in this kind of suburban location.

Unless Rock Row has some kind of handshake deal with a prospective tenant.
 
They also make the point that this building will have a Portland address (since it's just east of the city limits). I'm not sure what that gets them aside from higher taxes, but whatever.

From their Instagram post:

Key Highlights to 100 Quarry Drive:
✅ Up to 165,000 sq. ft. of Class A office space
✅ A 305-space attached parking garage for employees
✅ Stunning views of a 250-ft natural rock quarry right outside your window
✅ Immediate access to two I-95 exits (exits 47 and 48) within 0.5 miles, providing unparalleled connectivity
Ready to make your move? Learn more at https://rockrow.com/offices​

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It’s a pretty solid looking building… it’s just depressing waiting around for Rock Row. Really disappointing development because they are over promising and under delivering. Just look at that 10 story tower, while in the earlier stages of the idea, still much more attractive than this flat 6 floor rectangle. Looks like there was so much more life in the earlier renderings. Now it just seems lifeless and all for profit, as cheap as they can be. No originality. The original look of this building would have been pretty prominent along the TPK too! This one may peak over the trees.
Very sad waiting around for the Rock Row crew to do anything besides the medical center and some tents in the last 3 years.
 
Obviously the pandemic is a big part of it; they launched Market Basket in 2020 IIRC, and trying to push ahead in that climate when one of your biggest attractions was/is going to be a beer hall just wasn't going to be conducive to anything. And now, what's the market for a 6-story building compared to a 10-story building? This isn't the 80's when many of the banks were still locally controlled and pre-Provident Unum was putting one of its profit centers into any building in town big enough to have an elevator.
 
Rock Row reminds me of the Simpson Episode where they try to sell Springfield on the Monorail. In the end, it doesn't happen...
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The biggest thing isn’t the height, though it would be nice to have that 10 story building, it’s just the soul and life in this design is way less than it was in previous ideas. The entire development is lifeless and has been a disappointment. You all know I try to stay positive and do so on every other project… Rock Row is just sad
 
The only way that more office space gets built here is with a giant healthcare related anchor tenant. I can see the residential buildings, yes. The reason why healthcare works is because of the constant visitations by the public, of whom are covered for their outpatient treatments. So, if you build it, they will come. They have to. The only other tenant I could see here is a Chinese company with a tech-related product that is actually, ostensibly, spying.
 
I like the wood floors... looks cozy in here. A better design idea for those dealing with cancer. And it's all free. Good job, McDreamy.


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So, looking at the original ideas of this project to then having the only thing started and finished in the last 3 years being an average looking medical campus, this development has been a massive disappointment.
Wasn’t housing proposed like 2 years ago? This can’t be a true, successful mixed use development without housing. How about using the new TOD zoning and revitalizing the rail heading straight through the property and adding 1000+ new housing units along the rail… I know the existing businesses at Rock Row would be thrilled! (Here’s a look at my ideal light rail system on 90% existing rail if anyone was wondering)😂
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I’m getting way ahead of myself, sorry!
It’s really sad that the conversion of rail (the blue line on my ideal light rail map of Portland) to pedestrian trails was actually approved today or recently… what a waste of money. That rail line has so much potential to link east Deering, the Roux (5,000 students in next 10 years ish) and the growing suburbs along the coast to Downtown. I think they will greatly regret ripping rail to put down… gravel.
ANYWAY, what the heck’s going on at Rock Row??
 
Hard to believe that they messed this up so much. Had they concentrated on residential to begin with....they would have been marketing the units in the heart of a Southern Maine residential real estate boom. Now we have wars, tariffs & a very cloudy economic future and Rock Row has already become "meh".
 
I don't know why they're pushing an office building so hard. Personally, I have no interest in the residential component; I have a house in Portland, I'm not moving to an apartment in Westbrook. But I do spend a decent amount of money on the stores they have there now and eagerly await the movie theater and the fancy Italian restaurant.
 
Not a great look when the first thing on your sell list is 'a Portland address'
 
nomc said:
Not a great look when the first thing on your sell list is 'a Portland address'
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Yeah. It seems they went out of their way to get that parcel just over the line for that reason. It's not like you can reach it directly from Portland without walking the tracks (I refuse to countenance the alternative; it's a good way to get killed).
 
In another sign that the Rock Row developers really don't know what they're doing....Their website shows a plan of the retail buildout of phases 2 and 3 which shows major national brands filling up basically all of the proposed retail space.

I would be -astonished- if these retail spaces (which haven't even been approved let alone built and marketed) have been leased as they're showing in this plan. (Whole Foods, Lego, J-Crew, Vineyard Vines, Arhaus, Yeti, Gap, Banana Republic and many more)

To me this seems like its verging on false advertising and I could see them even potentially getting into legal trouble with one of these brands.


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I biked out there this afternoon to visit REI – the whole place was very busy at 2:30 pm on a weekday.

I have to say that in spite of the fact that it's absurdly impractical to get there without taking a car, the Rock Row site itself is unusually well designed for bike and pedestrian access, with calm access roads and nice landscaping, and a nice wide path that connects Brighton Ave. to the side of the quarry next to Market Basket.

All of the surrounding roadways, though, are an ugly, chaotic mess, and absolutely murderous for getting foot traffic to or from the site.

Driving through that area is also pretty unpleasant, unless you enjoy long waits at red lights (although it seems like lots of drivers out there do, since so many of them are gunning their engines to maximize their time waiting at the next one).

The City of Westbrook needs to do some serious pedestrian safety improvements on Main Street and Larrabee Road if they're actually on board with the developers' vision for a walkable mixed-use retail center. It's absolutely absurd that Larrabee Road is five lanes wide – it's as though the city is trying to make more drivers crash into each other.
 
cneal said:
I biked out there this afternoon to visit REI – the whole place was very busy at 2:30 pm on a weekday.

I have to say that in spite of the fact that it's absurdly impractical to get there without taking a car, the Rock Row site itself is unusually well designed for bike and pedestrian access, with calm access roads and nice landscaping, and a nice wide path that connects Brighton Ave. to the side of the quarry next to Market Basket.

All of the surrounding roadways, though, are an ugly, chaotic mess, and absolutely murderous for getting foot traffic to or from the site.

Driving through that area is also pretty unpleasant, unless you enjoy long waits at red lights (although it seems like lots of drivers out there do, since so many of them are gunning their engines to maximize their time waiting at the next one).

The City of Westbrook needs to do some serious pedestrian safety improvements on Main Street and Larrabee Road if they're actually on board with the developers' vision for a walkable mixed-use retail center. It's absolutely absurd that Larrabee Road is five lanes wide – it's as though the city is trying to make more drivers crash into each other.
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Traffic Circles. I don't know why we don't build more of them.
 
I looked into this developer a while back (from MA) and his record is a bit sketchy with development and builds. But it's interesting what is going on here. The one big smart thing he did was get a lock on all of this land. Most city downtowns are not functioning well for its citizens today. Welfare, etc. services co-exist with retailers and residents and it brings a lower class of citizen to areas that were once thriving. Portland's First Friday's used to be such a dynamic experience with the existing retail a while back. In addition, the focus on pressuring the population to take mass transportation tends to alienate those with more income preferring their cars. The Rock Row idea is happening all over the country now, and one key is the re-design of the roads, of which are not thoroughfares but narrow width entries and exits to parking (mostly big garages). This way, the streets stay relatively safe and are walkable. The idea of teasing or proposing stores and chains is simply a way to help people imagine would could be here. Whole Foods implies a more upscale customer, and that has it's advantages. I wouldn't be surprised if they stuck a Louis Vuitton tease in here too. But yes, it is a bit misleading. I only see continued growth for Rock Row. How ironic that the trend is a return to the suburbs. But we can thank our city "leaders" for that. The front page article from the NY Times a couple of months ago painted a picture of the Portland (ME) downtown core as being a haven for drug addiction and crime. Another aspect that stands out with these new shopping and living areas like Rock Row and The Downs is private security instead of the somewhat apathetic city police departments. Private security has the freedom to harass and remove those that are unwanted.
 
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