Portland, ME - New Construction Continued

Thanks for the effort BeeLine, the Portland building boom continues! The only thing I've heard about the Thomas Block is that several years ago they were considering the possibility of adding a full floor. I think the ground floor vacancy is just normal retail turnover.
 
Hey BeeLine, thanks for coming up and for the great pics! To answer two of your comments, the Luminato condos at Newbury and Franklin are new in the past couple of years, not just newly painted, and the Ocean Gateway Garage didn't just get a coat of paint; there's a significant expansion of the office space on the front.
 
The developers of the 7-story senior housing building on Kennebec Street in Bayside have applied for their building permit:

https://egweb.portlandmaine.gov/Ene...4-cea3-4fec-bd51-6c96e4a27726?tab=attachments

p.5.2.18.Housing1.jpg
 
Ok, now I need to make a trip up (I rarely make it past Saco where we've vacationed for years) and wander Portland. It looks great.
 
cneal said:
The developers of the 7-story senior housing building on Kennebec Street in Bayside have applied for their building permit:

https://egweb.portlandmaine.gov/Ene...4-cea3-4fec-bd51-6c96e4a27726?tab=attachments

p.5.2.18.Housing1.jpg
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Great news! This is going to be the biggest change to the Bayside skyline since 84 Marginal Way in 2008.

Now if only someone would redevelop those large empty lots on Somerset St. They're right in the middle of the everything in the neighborhood. They could call it "Midtown" :p
 
So it's starting to become apparent what the facade improvements on the Holiday Inn by the Bay are going to look like. I guess it's a minor improvement?

The back side is also halfway done. I'm assuming they're going to finish the whole facade in a similar pattern?

X1YuU03.jpg
 
The entire facade of the Holiday Inn will be done as pictured along with a total renovation of the interior spaces. Vivid green vertical lighting accents on both ends of the building will add some color at night. Not much they could do with the 70's design, but I'm happy to see the crushed rock inlays between the windows going away.

In other news, the 135 room hotel (Hilton Canopy) planned for Center and Commercial Street won Planning Board approval and construction is scheduled to begin in October with a 2021 opening.
 
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Looks like there are a few updated renderings of the proposed condos at 208 Fore Street on Archetype Architect's website. Looks like some kind of gray/tan brick would be the primary facade on the east and south sides of the building. Can't say the design excites me all that much but it's certainly different from anything going up in the area.

PM5.jpg


PM2.jpg


PM+3.jpg
 
Not bad, adds some color to the area and a change up from the many brick and granite themed buildings. Am surprised the building is not flush with India Street, the little parking lot looks out of place. The developer must not own that corner parcel?
 
Portlander said:
Not bad, adds some color to the area and a change up from the many brick and granite themed buildings. Am surprised the building is not flush with India Street, the little parking lot looks out of place. The developer must not own that corner parcel?
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That would be my guess too.

In terms of the design I think it's cool, but only for now. It's likely in the future to be seen as some sort of failed attempt to be cool, rather than actually standing the test of time. I envision future owners redoing the facade at least once. But again, for now, I like it.

In terms of the Wex building and the Compass Commercial Brokers site pictures on the previous pages, I think it's great that there's continued development, and even better that we've lured a significant portion of a global company to the downtown peninsula, but I think both are wildly out of scale with the neighborhood and are likely to also be regarded as blunders in the future. Wex sort of reminds me of Unum but in the wrong context. If Wex ever vacates, that building will become like a dead mall or vacant factory.

But hopefully the economy allows that site to simply be recycled for other users in the future should Wex ever vacate for any reason.

Regarding the 511 Congress St. site, a certain friend of mine let me on the roof. The view from up there is the best thing about the building ;)
 
Walked past the Ocean Gateway garage this morning and was a bit surprised to see the new office space seemingly fully occupied. Anyone know who moved into that space? Also is it class A or B?
 
Welcome back PortlandArch, the friend that got you on the roof of 511 must be a really cool individual! Well if WEX ever vacates their new digs, the good news would be that they've probably outgrown the space and are moving into a new downtown high rise. (I hesitate to ever use the term "tower" when discussing Portland in an attempt to not offend anyone) Not sure who moved into the garage offices Cosakita but a commercial realtor friend of mine classified the spaces as class A- if that helps.
 
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I've heard that Covetrus took the Ocean Gateway offices. Is the Compass site the one on Fore St. ( former Hamilton Marine)?
 
That's very possible markhb and makes a lot of sense in order to be close by while their new headquarters is being built.
 
Driving around Portland the other day, I was thinking about all the failed, pipe dream, pie in the sky developments to come up. Here are a few that I wish went forward:
Lincoln Square Project failed in the 80's, 20+ story building proposed, Various others
Gulf of Maine Aquarium to replace the barge that was at Long Wharf.
Fisherman's Wharf project by Liberty Group.
12 Story Office building next to the courthouse-proposed by Boulos.
Maine State Pier project-Ocean Prop
Long Wharf project by Liberty Group
7 story Office building to occupy lot across the Portland Regency and subway.
Vinghjay Singh project next to Children's museum.
New Civic Center by Elizabeth Noyes-Bayside
Portland Square project build out-now its being revisited again.
Office/Retail project next to rivalries dirt lot.
Convention Center -top of the old port
Add on building(same size as 465 Congress street 10 Stories) back of building where the atm and market sits.
The famous Midtown project(Early Version not the latest cheap version)10-16 Stories...
The Westin project at Jordan's meats, later became Hampton Inn, still waiting on other lot build out.
Westin meeting/event space on Congress Street.
10 story Apartment building on congress street where Geno's is.
Waterview Condos on Cumberland ave, instead low income housing in its place built 4-5 stories vs 15 for the Condo.
Apartment building near New England Telephone switch building(Parking Lot).
Office/Retail building new to Bills Pizza(Parking Lot)
Condo project at the corner of Washington and Congress Streets.
Post any other failed developments that come to mind.
 
The addition to 465 Congress Street was actually going to be 15 floors at 195' with the top four levels being built over a portion of the roof of the current building. I am looking at the former plans at the moment and have sent all the details to the new ownership group in Connecticut in case they'd like to accomplish something bold with the structure. Also connected them to the same architect who designed the proposal back in the 80's.


I did try to encourage them to replicate the limestone treatment and windows on the eastern wall to match the rest of the facade. Also suggested they paint the yellowish brick rear portion a "limestone" color to also blend in with the rest of the building. Response has been positive so far but their current plans do not involve the construction of a new building on the backside.
 
The Convention Center proposal by Joe Boulos at the Top of the Old Port lots also included an 18 story (215') tower at the Congress and Franklin Street corner, a 10-12 story hotel and a large parking garage. This project never getting off the ground still pains me to this day and would have been the perfect landmark building for the skyline. The earlier Lincoln Square proposal by the DMR Group was just too grand for Portland (not me) at the time with the tallest tower topping out at 300+ feet and two others in the 12 and 16 floor range.
 
Portlander said:
The addition to 465 Congress Street was actually going to be 15 floors at 195' with the top four levels being built over a portion of the roof of the current building. I am looking at the former plans at the moment and have sent all the details to the new ownership group in Connecticut in case they'd like to accomplish something bold with the structure. Also connected them to the same architect who designed the proposal back in the 80's.


I did try to encourage them to replicate the limestone treatment and windows on the eastern wall to match the rest of the facade. Also suggested they paint the yellowish brick rear portion a "limestone" color to also blend in with the rest of the building. Response has been positive so far but their current plans do not involve the construction of a new building on the backside.
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Thank you for doing this, I hope they take up some of your suggestions, particularly the treatment of the east-facing wall.

With the new owners of 477 Congress also considering major renovations, both of these landmark buildings should be looking / functioning much better in the near future.
 
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