General Portland Discussion

Max said:
Last thing I remember about this project was some back and forth with the city about the method they're going to use to shore up the cliff wall they've carved out of the hill. They were proposing to inject big screws that would be frozen or something like that, if I recall, but that was rejected by the city.

Looking at that rendering it's hard to tell exactly how far the roof is from the lookout, but my first thought upon seeing it was that it will be a tempting target for anyone looking to huck a rock or bottle...
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And it's probably no roof deck sun tanning or parties up there. 2-3 young women (or men) lying out in their bathing suits relishing the attention will create a firestorm in social media and eventually appearing in the PPH.
 
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East Brown Cow has submitted a major site plan review for 222 St John Street (aka old Maine RR building) according to the submittal on CSS, 133 Hotel rooms so no housing that was originally thought, 105,000 Retail and Commercial from 6,000 ft, no office space anymore. Architects are from NYC.
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222 St. John Street? For what? Another La Quinta Inn? This is still a relatively dead part of town, and even with the new passenger rail platform, not much better. What happened to their tall hotel/condo proposal behind Key Bank? They've done some interesting modern design, including the Hyatt and the oval cement/glass structure in Key Bank plaza. Portland's build climate appears to be faltering. It's lots of talk with very little dirt being moved around. Maybe the election outcome will change things.
 
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Tim Soley's Canal Plaza vision was a tower that topped out at 283' at the roofline which greatly exceeds the current and potential height limitations (125') of that parcel. The only location this tower could go if the new overlay is approved that does not already have a building would be the Portland Square parking lots. The land to the east of City Hall can accommodate 250' plus a mechanical cap but this building would have to be redesigned at the upper levels to meet that requirement. Tim told me a few years ago that he has no desire to shrink the building's height so the odds of it ever coming to fruition are slim in my opinion. Too bad because this would have been the tallest building in northern New England by 8 feet over Manchester's City Hall Plaza.
 
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PWMFlyer said:
East Brown Cow has submitted a major site plan review for 222 St John Street (aka old Maine RR building) according to the submittal on CSS, 133 Hotel rooms so no housing that was originally thought, 105,000 Retail and Commercial from 6,000 ft, no office space anymore. Architects are from NYC.
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A side effect of our garbage "Green New Deal" referendum that punishes any developer with the audacity to try to build housing. Hotel projects pencil out much easier than paying the "fee in lieu" for affordable housing.
 
Reading the Portland City Council agenda, Councilor Skykes is pushing at the midnight hour before the election and her Democratic Socialist Agenda a moratorium on hotels and mandate developers to build affordable housing instead. She is asking for the second reading to be dropped... she just can't let it go..
 
It's a 180-day moratorium basically intended to give the Staff and the Council time to fix our broken hotel IZ regulations. At least they're acknowledging that what we have now is a mess of contradictory regulations that undermine our own housing goals by highly incentivizing developers to build hotel units over residential.
 
The junk heap that is 9 Somerset is listed with Boulos for sale with no asking price. The sign is posted on the adjacent lot (near Verizon, not outlined in the Boulos map) and listed as for lease with parking available. Wondering if that is part of the lot and the Boulos map is wrong... or maybe a separate deal not yet listed on the site?

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E Perry may have decided to sell both properties separately. Redfern did buy the other property. Now with this on the market, this makes this interesting in the fact regarding the failed midtown project and the garage that is financed but the city paying interest on. What would the recode heights be for this area?
 
The owner of the lot next to it, and the next lot, is listed as "Somerset Development LLC" Not sure how long that's been the case.
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PWMFlyer said:
E Perry may have decided to sell both properties separately. Redfern did buy the other property. Now with this on the market, this makes this interesting in the fact regarding the failed midtown project and the garage that is financed but the city paying interest on. What would the recode heights be for this area?
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Ends of the lot are 105, the middle is 125... I think. The reds/oranges in the legend are hard to decipher.
 
PWMFlyer said:
Reading the Portland City Council agenda, Councilor Skykes is pushing at the midnight hour before the election and her Democratic Socialist Agenda a moratorium on hotels and mandate developers to build affordable housing instead. She is asking for the second reading to be dropped... she just can't let it go..
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I'd say keep your fucking political views out of this blog. Thanks.

From @Cosakita18

"It's a 180-day moratorium basically intended to give the Staff and the Council time to fix our broken hotel IZ regulations. At least they're acknowledging that what we have now is a mess of contradictory regulations that undermine our own housing goals by highly incentivizing developers to build hotel units over residential."

So ... idk ... *maybe* it's not some misguided democratic socialist agenda and we ... ::coughs:: ... stick to facts.
 
Portland has a new zoning code and zoning map:
https://www.pressherald.com/2024/11/04/portland-council-approves-recode-zoning-ordinance/

ReCode passed unanimously, with several minor amendments from individual City Councilors – some of those amendments were syntactical amendments to improve clarity, but a handful made the final code a little bit more lenient and favorable to new development (the Council added a new Island Business zone to some parcels along Central Ave. in the center of Peaks Island, added language that lets green roofs be counted towards landscaped open space requirements, and expanded the high-density transit-oriented development zone along Brighton Ave., among other things).

The Democratic Socialist Agenda strikes again /s
 
So one project comes to mind is Redfern's project on Washington Ave. Did Recode give them the height they needed?
 
This is incredible! Boston.com with nearly 500K followers is admitting that Portland, Maine is the most livable city in the U.S. I think I'll stop complaining (maybe). It's not about the source (RentCafe) in this argument, it's that Boston.com would post it. Wow, wow, wow.

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I certainly hope, no, I pray that the NY Times and other big outlets (please no, 60 Minutes) don't pick this up. What were they thinking? They were inspired by 19 and 20 year olds protesting at colleges and universities, and thought they had to participate somehow with the "official word" from Portland? If you truly dig into portfolio divestiture it's more complicated than a simple yes or no. Who is leading Portland now? My friend in Basel, Switzerland joked to me once that his city is run by people with Masters and PhD degrees, not people who are elected simply because they are liked. There has to be merit. Well, I guess we can knock that slight decline in tourism last year down one more point or two for next year.

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This is the final Downtown / Bayside height map approved by the City Council as part of ReCode.

A few things to note:

- The Canal Plaza block has been rezoned to 325 feet, this would allow the proposed "Cow Tower" to move ahead
- The Midtown parcels have been rezoned to 180 feet.
- The Herald Square and Top of the Old Port parcels have been rezoned to 250 feet.
- The Perry Scrap metal site (Which Redfern recently purchased) has been rezoned to 125 feet.
- A large area between Free Street and Spring Street (Currently the Convention Center / Parking Garage / PMA has been rezoned up to 250 feet.
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Compare this to the old height map, and it's clear that ReCode has enabled quite a bit more height and density downtown!

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Thanks for posting this. The Canal Plaza increase to 325' is interesting and I wonder if Tim Soley will move forward with his 283' tower?

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Nickelodeon/Temple Street Garage at 325… a 25-30 story building there would truly make the downtown feel close to complete!! What a change in feel that would be. Then add a couple 15-20 story buildings to the east of City Hall and you’re talkin!
 
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