89 Elm Street | Port Properties Bayside Phase 1A | Portland

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Avesta supplies sorely needed affordable housing for Portland (89 Elm) and now the city is aiming to kill larger-scaled projects like this one by pulling its non-profit status. The city talks out of both sides of its mouth. They want more affordable housing, but then create more taxes, fees, penalties, etc. for builders to prevent it. The 25% inclusionary zoning mandate is not working. Redfern has 3 large builds on hold which translates to much needed property tax income for the city (which is repeated every year). Jim Brady has a large build across from the Press Hotel on pause (condos and hotel rooms), and there are two more that are residential from another developer, adjacent. And that's not including the projects on hold that we don't know about, of course. That is a lot of unrealized property tax revenue for the city. And penalizing Northern Light Mercy Hospital will result in higher medical costs for Mainers and less competition with Maine Medical to bring costs down. Many medical procedures are now cheaper in Boston (PPH article last year) and yes, Mainers will drive down because it's often the smarter thing to do. Does the city understand the concept of ramification? I don't think it does. But they do seem to know how to "ram it to you."


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The original (white) crane is on the downhill (toward Back Cove) end of the building not in middle of building. I think they added the second (yellow) crane as the construction progressed.
 
The original (white) crane is on the downhill (toward Back Cove) end of the building not in middle of building. I think they added the second (yellow) crane as the construction progressed.
The early design configurations had the crane in the middle. Makes more sense that way with the larger footprint.
 

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