Cold Storage Facility Redev | 40 West Commercial Street | Portland

[Cosakita18]

Looks like there's a geotech crew on site today. Work may be getting under way soon.

 

[PWMFlyer]

The pile Driving crane arrived today...

 

[Cosakita18]

Looking at some of the site plans again, particularly the "back side", it really seems like the developers/ the Port Authority have designed this facility to be easily expanded east towards the water with additional warehouse space and truck bays should there ever be demand for it. This site plan also includes quite a bit of blank / grass space which is surely temporary. This is good "future proofing" and shows that they're thinking long-term beyond simply meeting the needs of Eimskip.

Looking at the longer-term prospects for the IMT, the most logical next step for increasing available landside space would be to do a small amount of landfill (about 150 feet) out into the Fore River on the western side of the Casco Bay Bridge. This would allow for more dedicated extended-length refer trailer / container plugins and would allow more of the existing yard to be used for non-refrigerated pre/ post customs container storage. Current yard storage capacity is ~2,100 TEU, but it it could easily be doubled to 4,200 TEU or more by repurposing existing space.


Here's something I threw together showing how the IMT could make the most of the land it has. A buildout like this could allow the IMT to handle 75,000-80,000 TEU annually.

 

[Portlander]

Are those supposed to be solar panels on the roof?

 

[Cosakita18]

Are those supposed to be solar panels on the roof?

yes! Intended to be the largest rooftop solar array in the state

 

[Portlander]

I like your ideas Cosakita. My other concern is the long term capability of the pier to handle larger vessels if the container business continues to flourish in Portland. Eimskip has already utilized a 462' vessel at IMT and the largest ship in it's fleet currently measures 590' in length which will still work due to the pier being able to accommodate a vessel up to 700'.

 

[Cosakita18]

That's absolutely the biggest limiting factor for the IMT, and there's really no good way around it.
The IMT's main berth is technically 730 feet (210 meters) and it could accommodate vessels up to about 2,000 TEU. For perspective, the ships Eimskip uses now for its Maine-Iceland service are 800-950 TEU, and they intend to purchase a new set of 1,100 TEU vessels for that route. The biggest ships Eimskip operates (Dettifoss, Brúarfoss and Tukuma Arctica) are 2,100 TEU, and were actually designed to fit at the IMT if needed, so Eimskip won't be outgrowing the IMT anytime soon.

And even though Portland won't ever be able to accommodate those 10,000+ TEU giants, refer ships are much smaller and pretty much every refer ship the world would fit comfortably at the IMT. This new cold storage warehouse will really make the port ideal for handling containerized and palletized refrigerated cargo. Not just seafood, but all sorts of food, agriculture and beverage products, and even pharmaceuticals / biomedical products. Most short-sea feeder services also use ships that would be small enough to fit at the IMT, and I know that the Port Authority has had talks with CMA-CGM in the past about making Portland a call on their East Coast - Caribbean feeder service.

Portland won't ever be Long Beach or even Halifax, but with these upgrades it CAN be a really good gateway port for New England. In some ways it's better than the Conley terminal in Boston.

 

[nomc]

Anyone know what happened to this? As mentioned above there was some equipment on site, but that has long since disappeared.

 

[Cosakita18]

Anyone know what happened to this? As mentioned above there was some equipment on site, but that has long since disappeared.

The Cold Storage facility has been delayed (temporarily) because of construction cost increases, but they anticipate a groundbreaking "sometime this year" The facility will actually be a little bit larger than initially planned, With an extra ~7,000 sq ft and 2 additional truck bays added to the waterfront side of the building. They've been doing some additional engineering work, which is another reason for the delay. (From my understanding, these changes won't require separate planning approval)

Some other IMT news:

- The Port Authority is in the early planning phases of a dredging and wharf rehab project that would allow the IMT to handle ships up to ~2,200 TEU)

- Eimskip intends to replace all 3 ships currently sailing the Green Line with 1,000-1,200 TEU ships by mid 2023.

- Baring a recession or other global economic challenges... the Port Authority is predicting the IMT will handle 50,000 TEU's / year by 2025

-With CSX in town...Eimskip anticipates draying ship-to-rail containers to a future intermodal terminal being built by CSX at Rigby yard. This means that the "Yard 8" intermodal ramp at the IMT will remain unused unless improvements are made . (There's nothing currently planned)

- Some additional smaller upgrades are planned to improve throughput. This includes purchasing several gantry cranes for stacking and transferring landside containers and adding truck queueing areas near the new Cold Storage facility.

 

[markhb]

-With CSX in town...Eimskip anticipates draying ship-to-rail containers to a future intermodal terminal being built by CSX at Rigby yard. This means that the "Yard 8" intermodal ramp at the IMT will remain unused unless improvements are made . (There's nothing currently planned)

And, as we discussed on another site, there are few if any meaningful improvements that are even possible at Yard 8 due to the small site and being hemmed in by PYS.

 

[DanielPWM19]

I'm going to get laughed out of this group (and the West End NIMBY's will lose the GD minds ... how about we just move Commercial Street? HAHA

 

[markhb]

I'm going to get laughed out of this group (and the West End NIMBY's will lose the GD minds ... how about we just move Commercial Street? HAHA

If only you had suggested it before they built the new VA clinic....

 

[Cosakita18]

It would really be easier to expand the other way...out into the Fore River. A little bit of landfill on the western side of the facility could go a long way.

 

[nomc]

Long-awaited cold storage warehouse to break ground Monday

 

[Portlander]

Great news for the Port of Portland and the State of Maine!

 

[Cosakita18]

The cold storage facility is -finally- breaking ground on Monday

Long-awaited cold storage warehouse to break ground Monday

Work on the massive refrigerated building at Maine's lone shipping container terminal finally gets underway after 7 years of planning and false starts.

www.pressherald.com

Construction will last until early 2024. By that point, the IMT will also likely be starting a dredging and wharf rehab project to handle ships up to 2,000 TEU.

 

[Portlander]

Cosakita, this rendering was from 2019 and I'm curious if this is still fairly close to what the final build out will look like?

 

[Cosakita18]

These are the only renderings included in the minor site plan amendment from April.
It looks -mostly- the same visually. They also intend to include a sort of minimalist mural of the outline of Portland's waterfront on the side facing Commercial St. Which I think looks good. (Although, a direct rail siding with loading doors for refer boxcars would be better)

I'd also like to petition to change the title of this thread to
" Working Waterfront and Port Developments | Portland"

for discussion about anything related to the working waterfront and commercial marine activity.

 

[markhb]

I'd also like to petition to change the title of this thread to
" Working Waterfront and Port Developments | Portland"

for discussion about anything related to the working waterfront and commercial marine activity

If were voting, 8 would vote no on that. Let this thread stay with the cold storage project, and start a new thread for waterfront discussion (which we already have a lot of in Skyline Photos that could me moved over).

 

[Portlander]

I do love the mural!