General Portland Discussion

PWMFlyer said:
I almost fell out of my chair when I saw this in PPH......Can you imagine GPL getting involved to save just like Union Station....
www.pressherald.com

Portland’s Franklin Towers was added to the National Register of Historic Places. But not for the reasons you think.

The 16-story apartment building, which is home to about 215 low-income elderly and disabled people, has been plagued with health and safety problems for years. The designation could lower the cost to renovate it.
www.pressherald.com www.pressherald.com
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Are you insinuating that "historic preservation" is less concerned about history than it is about enforcing the aesthetic preferences of wealthy, elitist snobs? What in the world gave you that idea? /sarcasm
 
cneal said:
Are you insinuating that "historic preservation" is less concerned about history than it is about enforcing the aesthetic preferences of wealthy, elitist snobs? What in the world gave you that idea? /sarcasm
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I am not saying that Pam Plumb, one of the founders of GPL and someone who has given a lot to this city, is an elitist snob. But it has occurred to me that, even though the demolition of Union Station was the public impetus for the founding of GPL, I wonder how much of it was driven by outrage over that and how much was driven by concerns for the Park Street Row House, which would have lost a section or two to the Spring Street Arterial had it been pushed through to State St. as planned, and which, for many years at least, was where Pam Plumb lived (info from public records from her time on the City Council and 2010 Charter Commission).
 
Are the Fidelity Building (1910), Chapman Building (1924) and Masonic Building (1909) on the National Register of Historic Places? They should be a much higher priority than Franklin Towers! I think the Fidelity is considered a Greater Portland Landmark but doesn't being on the National Register help owners/develpers get restoration grants which would could finally get these three mostly empty buildings renovated?
 
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Franklin Towers doesn't have a bunch of fake-Greek crap plastered over its facade like those other buildings, but it does have strong claims to being historic – and it's frankly more unique than a lot of old houses with Greater Portland Landmarks plaques in the West End. It's a great example of mid-century modern architecture, and of Great Society public housing programs, and of the city's urban renewal schemes. Even as someone who understands that urban renewal as massive blunder, I can still acknowledge that is a pretty big component of the city's history.

The preservation movement (which has traditionally been run by wealthy people) has traditionally done a pretty bad job of preserving the history of poor people, so I appreciate this listing for recognizing the value of their history, too.
 
They had me for a second (in my Instagram feed), but then I realized what day it is.

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Interesting analysis article of available office space in Portland. Portland is doing better than most of the U.S., and
a bit better than Boston? It's misleading. I follow the arch blog in Boston closely and the number of new office/lab buildings under
construction and planned is impressive. I think the demand is strong for "new" space instead of using or converting the
old. Around MIT and Harvard over the Charles in Allston where a billion dollars-worth is under construction,
and the even bigger spread with The Seaport District, indicates demand is strong. The worst demand in the U.S. is S.F. and
one would think with proximity to Silicon Valley it would not be this dire. From everything I've seen in the Boston Arch blog,
and they are populated with many commenters from the inside, The Seaport is becoming the next de facto geo center for technology
(and for the MIT area and east) in the world. And it's not just biotech related. Amazon, Boeing, and Google have all built new
buildings in Boston--perhaps the big draw are the smarter college students found here. Portland is so close to Boston
and not experiencing even a smaller effect from this. Portland is now contracting.

https://www.pressherald.com/2024/04...k-still-echoes-in-portlands-office-buildings/

ph.officevacancy.0405.jpg
 
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I never read the recent Comprehensive Plan update in detail, but in skimming through it it seemed that the downtown office space sector, or what I think of as the "people who wear ties and/or pencil skirts to work" segment, was almost completely ignored.
 
markhb said:
As a Portland homeowner who primarily works remotely, how do I get these tax credits of which they speak?
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Maybe this?...

The home office deduction, calculated on Form 8829, is available to both homeowners and renters. There are certain expenses taxpayers can deduct. These may include mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs, maintenance, depreciation and rent. Nov 14, 2023

I too primarily work at home and definitely prefer not having to waste time with a commute (and the accompanying driving stress). Also, I rent cars when I need them and use them for part of this time for work related business, thus getting that covered as a work expense. I sooooo do not miss that painful monthly car payment.
 
TC_zoid said:
Maybe this?...

The home office deduction, calculated on Form 8829, is available to both homeowners and renters. There are certain expenses taxpayers can deduct. These may include mortgage interest, insurance, utilities, repairs, maintenance, depreciation and rent. Nov 14, 2023

I too primarily work at home and definitely prefer not having to waste time with a commute (and the accompanying driving stress). Also, I rent cars when I need them and use them for part of this time for work related business, thus getting that covered as a work expense. I sooooo do not miss that painful monthly car payment.
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Given that I basically crammed myself into our existing home office when Covid hit, I'd have a hard time justifying the "exclusive business use" stipulation, and not being in a customer-facing role I have zero work-related car time (other than the occasional commute into the office which isn't deductible anyway). But the article / Instagram post talked about tax breaks particular to remote-working from Portland, which I doubt really exist and was facetiously asking about.
 
Interesting to see an MSPD coming for 203 Fore St - even though the site was on my wish list for 2024 I didn't expect any movement. At this point it's 5 story, 132 hotel rooms, retail. 85,465 total sf, 31,250 sf of impervious area after construction (currently 19,000 sf) - hard to say what the building footprint will look like, but given the amount of impervious area I'm wondering if they plan to propose a park. Can anyone find out anything additional?

kajshdflkiyhas;dlf.jpg
 
nomc said:
Interesting to see an MSPD coming for 203 Fore St - even though the site was on my wish list for 2024 I didn't expect any movement. At this point it's 5 story, 132 hotel rooms, retail. 85,465 total sf, 31,250 sf of impervious area after construction (currently 19,000 sf) - hard to say what the building footprint will look like, but given the amount of impervious area I'm wondering if they plan to propose a park. Can anyone find out anything additional?

View attachment 49767
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It seems like it will be very similar to what was proposed in 2017-2018. Like the previous proposal it will also be a "Home2" branded hotel with frontage on Fore and India Streets with a pocket park along Middle.
 
I wouldn't expect something radically different from the Home2 they built in SoPo where the tiki huts were... and if they're under the same ownership as Residence Inn I would expect they're going to try to maintain the on-site parking for both (there's only so much room in the Gateway Garage).
 
I don't think anyone's posted this here, but the city planning office has produced this very interesting dashboard of housing production data:

https://www.portlandmaine.gov/1462/Housing-Dashboard

Some things to note:
  • The 2020 "green new deal" ordinance did not, as some predicted, put an end to new housing development; 2023 was a record-setting year for housing approvals, and 2021 was the third-best year in recent history (I'd argue that the city's ongoing zoning reforms and increased state investments in affordable housing have cancelled out any added costs of the GND)
  • 2015 was the city's second-best year for new housing approvals, but 1/3rd of the 1225 units approved that year were in the Midtown project.
  • In most years, the median time between planning approval to completion is 2 years.
  • There are 2,260 housing units that have been approved since 2020 but are not yet built, including Portland Foreside, the Bayside/Port Properties project, the co-op projects on outer Washington and in LIbbytown, and the buildout of the Catherine McAuley senior housing
  • Average housing completions over the past 5 years has been around 320 units/year. That's a 1 percent growth rate for the city as a whole (which has 35,000 households). By comparison, the average annualized population growth for the entire Portland metro area for the decade between 2010 and 2020 was 0.7 percent/year.
 
cneal said:
I don't think anyone's posted this here, but the city planning office has produced this very interesting dashboard of housing production data:

https://www.portlandmaine.gov/1462/Housing-Dashboard

Some things to note:
  • The 2020 "green new deal" ordinance did not, as some predicted, put an end to new housing development; 2023 was a record-setting year for housing approvals, and 2021 was the third-best year in recent history (I'd argue that the city's ongoing zoning reforms and increased state investments in affordable housing have cancelled out any added costs of the GND)
  • 2015 was the city's second-best year for new housing approvals, but 1/3rd of the 1225 units approved that year were in the Midtown project.
  • In most years, the median time between planning approval to completion is 2 years.
  • There are 2,260 housing units that have been approved since 2020 but are not yet built, including Portland Foreside, the Bayside/Port Properties project, the co-op projects on outer Washington and in LIbbytown, and the buildout of the Catherine McAuley senior housing
  • Average housing completions over the past 5 years has been around 320 units/year. That's a 1 percent growth rate for the city as a whole (which has 35,000 households). By comparison, the average annualized population growth for the entire Portland metro area for the decade between 2010 and 2020 was 0.7 percent/year.
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This is great, thanks for posting!
 
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