Addition: given the changing city, I'd like to see this area redeveloped with more density. I don't know if it's possible to do this without losing the affordable units in the area - something I would be against - but if it is, this could be a massive project. Activating this stretch of Fore St would also help with the connection of the Old Port to Foreside.
Agree and wish that 100 Fore Street had been designed to help activate that block as well. I’m sure the strange zoning rules for that block had best intentions, but the outcome looks like the top/back of a parking garage where some retail 2- to 4-story facade would help define and add energy.
I believe that if these homes were given more variety in color, it would help with its justification of place, like the colorful row houses across from the Victoria Mansion. It's become an attraction in itself.
www.pressherald.com
Low-income housing with waterfront views in Portland sold to investment firm
The existing 140 units at Munjoy South must remain available for low-income renters until 2042, but any new development could be market-rate.
lihc.com
Odd that the building on the far corner (Silver Street) was demolished and is now home to the Commercial Street Pub, Olive Cafe etc. Given that this was the 1960's, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Portland allowed that building to be demolished for a POS little building. The buildings just beyond it are also gone and have been replaced with the building Starbucks, Edgecomb Potters, etc are in. That building at least is an improvement and attempts to fit into the Old Port.
What do you mean by he built it over? Like at a time there was a parking garage with a new building on top or he built it over the garage and dismantled the garage?
That building, IIRC, was the home of DiMillo's On the Waterfront. There was a fire which necessitated its demolition and DiMillo's moved to the floating restaurant. Early on, the end unit in the replacement building was the home of the Nova Scotia Tourist Board, because Maine had some of the cheapest WATS (800-number) rates in the country. Later on, that block became known as the Three Doors of Death.
It was the old Casco Bank bunker! Parking on the Fore St. level, solid concrete with an ATM machine (and maybe an actual branch at one time) on Commercial.
When I was at Auto Europe, that ATM was indispensable. I think a lot of people don't realize what a turning point the creation of the Regency Hotel was; before that, moving from Exchange to Market really felt like going from Metropolis to Gotham City. The Armory was a paper warehouse, Milk St. was the same width it is between Exchange and Market and whatever was torn down to create that entry plaza was really only good for casting shadows, and by the time you got to Silver things were downright creepy. The Old Port was Exchange, and Fore maybe from Pearl to Union St., and that was about it.
