Herald Square | 385 Congress St | Portland

[cneal]

Very interesting! Although I'll note that these plans are all dated from May 2020, before the "green new deal" ordinances passed, so maybe take them with a grain of salt.

However, it looks like the application is still active and the developers very recently paid a $1,000 to launch planning board review:
https://selfservice.portlandmaine.g.../invoice/35141f3a-b346-4f28-83ea-5218f9f1da3f

Hopefully they'll value engineer out some of the parking garage spaces. 494 cars for 212 apartments, a hotel and a nursing home is too much, especially given how almost every METRO bus runs right next to this site.

 

[Cosakita18]

Very interesting! Although I'll note that these plans are all dated from May 2020, before the "green new deal" ordinances passed, so maybe take them with a grain of salt.

However, it looks like the application is still active and the developers very recently paid a $1,000 to launch planning board review:
https://selfservice.portlandmaine.g.../invoice/35141f3a-b346-4f28-83ea-5218f9f1da3f

Hopefully they'll value engineer out some of the parking garage spaces. 494 cars for 212 apartments, a hotel and a nursing home is too much, especially given how almost every METRO bus runs right next to this site.

I wonder if this project will be "grandfathered in" because the planning process for this project technically started before the GND was passed.

 

[PWMFlyer]

Has anyone seen anything on the old Lincoln Sq property (aka Top of The Old Port parking lot) ? with development next door happening, this would be the last big open tract to developed...

 

[Max]

I wonder if this project will be "grandfathered in" because the planning process for this project technically started before the GND was passed.

I believe this is the case, and is probably why a number of site plans were submitted in late Nov / early Dec. Even if the applications weren't fully formed, they were submitted before the referendums took effect.

 

[TC_zoid]

Very interesting! Although I'll note that these plans are all dated from May 2020, before the "green new deal" ordinances passed, so maybe take them with a grain of salt.

However, it looks like the application is still active and the developers very recently paid a $1,000 to launch planning board review:
https://selfservice.portlandmaine.g.../invoice/35141f3a-b346-4f28-83ea-5218f9f1da3f

Hopefully they'll value engineer out some of the parking garage spaces. 494 cars for 212 apartments, a hotel and a nursing home is too much, especially given how almost every METRO bus runs right next to this site.

Agreed. It's always the old timers screaming about having enough parking. Tenants in their 20s and 30s don't care as much about cars today. They'd rather take an Uber so they can use their phone. I'd be surprised if this development gets built as it's quite dense and tall.

 

[Cosakita18]

Seems like the office component of this project has been scrapped. Disappointing but not surprising given current economic trends.

Agree with Christian that the parking element seems excessive, and the design is overall a bit generic. But overall this project definitely takes full advantage of allowable heights, and this is a good transit-adjacent location for large-scale residential.

 

[PWMFlyer]

Remember that Merrill Auditorium is next door which requires parking during events. That street corridor will be greatly improved. 1900 seats in the auditorium, many get dropped off. Some park in the Top of the old port, others park next door during events.

 

[Dr. StrangeHat]

and the design is overall a bit generic.

I'm actually not that down on the design. Sure, it's generic compared to Boston, but as was discussed in the Federal Street tower thread, the economics of building in Portland, especially with limited allowable heights, inherently limits the ability to get lavish or elaborate with design. I do really like the density and scale here.

 

[Cosakita18]

Agreed that "Generic" isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like the overall massing and design and this project definitely maximizes the potential of the site. This project really reminds me of a lot of new developments in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

[cneal]

Not sure what this means, but it looks like the city pulled those documents down from the CSS site:

CSS

Citizen Self Service web site

selfservice.portlandmaine.gov

@Max, any chance you saved those PDFs for posterity?

 

[Dr. StrangeHat]

 

[Max]

@Max, any chance you saved those PDFs for posterity?

Not intentionally, but there they are in my downloads folder!

 

[Max]

During the Planning Board hearing on 387 Commercial Street last night, developer Joe Dasco, in reference to a question about why they're paying the fee-in-lieu rather than build workforce units, mentioned that their development partner at 385 Congress recently pulled out of the project because of the requirements of the recent "green new deal" referendum. He basically said they've gone back to the drawing board on the site but are planning to come back with some kind of development.

 

[Cosakita18]

Disappointing but not surprising.

I do think the Original master plan wouldn’t have survived the planning process Without modification and downscaling . I could easily see the planning board and historic preservation board raising concerns about “overshadowing “ city hall.

 

[Max]

Looks like they've filed a new MDP for this site. No renderings yet, but the text info indicates one new building, 312 housing units, 152 hotel rooms and 387 parking spaces. So it sounds like one massive building with housing/hotel over parking. Will be interesting to see renderings...

 

[Portlander]

Can't wait to see the plans and I'm guessing 15 total levels to be able to accommodate all of the parking, hotel and housing unit estimates.

 

[Cosakita18]

I would imagine that "one building" would really be more like one large podium with several separate towers.

Link to the new MDP:

CSS

Citizen Self Service web site

selfservice.portlandmaine.gov

 

[cneal]

Interesting! Looks like the revised project will have a roughly similar scale as the previous one, with a little less parking, less residential (no more nursing home, but more units of housing), and roughly the same number of hotel rooms. Looks like it's the same developers (Reger Dasco).

Per the documents that @Max saved up thread, the previous iteration had a 277,000 SF, 218-unit nursing home in one mid-rise, plus 214 condos on top of a 414-space above-grade parking garage in another 314,000 SF midrise, plus a 147-room hotel in a third building of 158,000 SF, plus 139 more parking spaces below-grade under the hotel and nursing home.

This new application says that there would be 312 homes in 356,900 SF of residential space, plus 387 parking spaces, plus 152 hotel rooms.

Nice to see a slight reduction in parking pollution in this iteration, but that's still a high parking ratio for such a walkable location that's on every bus line (and considerably higher than other projects going up in the neighborhood with zero additional parking).

The city's recent zoning updates, made in the interest of promoting more transit use and reducing traffic, mean there's no minimum parking requirement for this site. Hopefully the planning board pushes them to do better and replace some of that parking square footage with more homes instead.

 

[nomc]

Remember that Merrill Auditorium is next door which requires parking during events. That street corridor will be greatly improved. 1900 seats in the auditorium, many get dropped off. Some park in the Top of the old port, others park next door during events.

I agree with @PWMFlyer that the parking density might be due to the proximity to Merrill - especially if/when Top of the Old Port goes away they might be setting themselves up to take that business.

 

[PWMFlyer]

Merrill needs parking for events and having a facility next to city will help alleviate that especially for older folks that don't want to walk far. It would be nice to have a 24/7 garage to service to neighborhood during snow bans also...