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

The developer is simply a hack. The Downs compares in dramatic contrast of how to do a new community build. I met a friend last week at Assembly Row in Somerville. You can get there with the Orange Line and it's an entirely new neighborhood anchored with a 12 story office building for Mass General corporate offices. Follow this lead, though not as tall.
 
I just don't get why condos and apartments won't work at Rock Row considering the location combined with housing prices in the Portland region. The developers are idiots!
 
Here's a quick comparison of the plan to be discussed tomorrow night, vs the plan from the cancelled meeting in December. I suppose the biggest thing to keep in mind is that all of this is conceptual and each building will need its own site plan review, etc. Also, North is to the right, West is up.

December plan:
Rock Row Phase 3 Layout - December 2025.png

Current plan:
Rock Row Phase 3 Layout - April 2026.png

The biggest things that jump out to me (some from pages I didn't copy) are:
  • Additional one-story retail buildings west of Rock Row Boulevard, on what was intended to be surface parking
  • The walking path along the east side of the quarry is absent
  • The "Entertainment" building is about half the original size (reduced from c. 90000 sq ft to c. 45000) and is just labeled as "Entertainment" rather than specifically "Cinema".
  • Building "Y" is now apparently going to have loft office space on the second floor, rather than additional residential.
 
Those 1-story retail buildings closest to Larrabee Road are the most concerning. That virtually kills future development of any height or scale on those parking lots. It also pushes this further away from an urban feel to a suburban feel.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
Those 1-story retail buildings closest to Larrabee Road are the most concerning. That virtually kills future development of any height or scale on those parking lots. It also pushes this further away from an urban feel to a suburban feel.
Click to expand...
I think the most concerning is how little residential space there is. And let's not forget the fact they don't have the resources to execute on any of this.
 
DV74 said:
And let's not forget the fact they don't have the resources to execute on any of this.
Click to expand...

Yup, which is why I'm willing to bet the only thing that gets built is that 1-story retail along Larrabee.
 
Listening to the workshop, a couple of things:
  • They're working on getting approval for the private road layout and utilities for this phase.
  • First planned buildings will be the SR and SG, being the apartments and parking garage. They'll be putting in the site plan applications for that shortly.
  • The entertainment building is NOT the movie theater; they were worried about parking and so that's being pushed to Phase 2 (the section we've been waiting for all this time).
  • They still want to have the concert hall/ convention center but hope it will be a public/private partnership with the city.
  • They did have a nice little flyover video that they'll hopefully put on their Instagram or something.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
Those 1-story retail buildings closest to Larrabee Road are the most concerning. That virtually kills future development of any height or scale on those parking lots. It also pushes this further away from an urban feel to a suburban feel.
Click to expand...

I wonder if they're holding out for Westbrook and our cash-strapped MaineDOT to sell off some of the Larrabee Road right-of-way.

If you look at tax maps, Larrabee Road has a 200' right-of-way.

That's absurdly wide – wider than the Zakim Bridge that carries 10 lanes of Interstate 93 into downtown Boston – and most of that real estate is completely empty, serving no purpose except to take up space and diminish the City of Westbrook's tax base:
Screenshot 2026-04-08 at 3.14.51 PM.png


Larrabee Road also carries less traffic than many 2-lane roads. It would function better, and much more safely, as an 80-foot-wide 3-lane roadway with dedicated left-turning lanes, like Fore River Parkway (which is about 80 feet wide, including the shared-use path on the side).

Then Westbrook could sell roughly 3 acres of newly-available, newly-taxable land along Rock Row's property: more than enough to line the new Larrabee Street with double-loaded corridor apartment buildings (which are typically 65-80 feet wide).
 
cneal said:
I wonder if they're holding out for Westbrook and our cash-strapped MaineDOT to sell off some of the Larrabee Road right-of-way.

If you look at tax maps, Larrabee Road has a 200' right-of-way.

That's absurdly wide – wider than the Zakim Bridge that carries 10 lanes of Interstate 93 into downtown Boston – and most of that real estate is completely empty, serving no purpose except to take up space and diminish the City of Westbrook's tax base:
View attachment 71971

Larrabee Road also carries less traffic than many 2-lane roads. It would function better, and much more safely, as an 80-foot-wide 3-lane roadway with dedicated left-turning lanes, like Fore River Parkway (which is about 80 feet wide, including the shared-use path on the side).

Then Westbrook could sell roughly 3 acres of newly-available, newly-taxable land along Rock Row's property: more than enough to line the new Larrabee Street with double-loaded corridor apartment buildings (which are typically 65-80 feet wide).
Click to expand...

Nice find! I wonder if that's an old vestige from when the Westbrook Arterial was planned to connect with I-295 and Larrabee would have been an interchange instead of an at-grade interesction?
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
Nice find! I wonder if that's an old vestige from when the Westbrook Arterial was planned to connect with I-295 and Larrabee would have been an interchange instead of an at-grade interesction?
Click to expand...
Definitely. If you look at the tax maps, you can see how the ROW gets even wider near the Arterial for a cloverleaf highway interchange that they never built. A few years ago, IIRC, MaineDOT transferred some of that interchange land to the Westbrook Housing Authority.
 
I just wish they would load up along the rail corridor and run a light rail/tram line into Portland and into downtown Westbrook/Gorham. I know it’s a long shot but there are so many opportunities for this land. Single use commercial with surface parking isn’t ideal.
 
MarkHB said:
They have a microsite for this new project: https://rockrow.com/phase3 .
Click to expand...
This is that developer from MA with a track record of controversies. He doesn't even have access to a proper arch firm to plan this out properly. But he does have some kind of lock on the land for dreaming, so that's something, anyway. And I really, really hate the big mining pit disguised as some kind of water oasis. I'd empty it and build a 25,000-seat soccer/etc. stadium (indoors) with underground parking in that big hole. The hole is almost exactly the correct size and height for a stadium bowl shape. Hearts of Pine and our friends at Redfern have already proven this sport success model. And if Bangor can fill 16,000 seats for concerts, then Portland with four times the population (and growing) along with 5 million accessible in Boston and Southern NH from a 60 to 90 min. straight shot up 95 seems like a winning proposition. The surrounding retail village and housing attempt that they are making now makes more sense. Think long term. We never seem to do that.
 
Rock Row is back at the May (Westbrook) Planning Board meeting with a workshop on buildings SG and SR:
26-000274 – Site Plan, Subdivision – Rock Row South Campus Building SG & SR – Dirigo Center
Developers, LLC: The applicant is proposing the construction of a mixed-use building within the Rock Row
South Campus on Lot 8. The development includes a seven-story structure featuring ground level retail
with a parking garage and residential development above. Tax Map: 042B Lot 14I Zone: Gateway
Commercial Use: Mixed, Retail
Click to expand...
 
They need to figure out what to put in the big mining pit. I don't think simply water is going to work. It wouldn't look natural.
Possibilities...
1. soccer stadium--an easy fit
2. massive rock climbing facility with F&D offerings everywhere
3. giant artificial grass playground with pex tubing heating underneath for year-round fun.
4. biggest parking garage in the world
5. world's biggest bounce house filled with billions of those soft little balls (though some kids might never be found)
 
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