Portland Bayside

awesome, thanks! Look for Bay House to begin construction within a few weeks because September is their deadline before the contract zone expires.
 
The city's also currently soliciting bids to reconnect Somerset Street across Elm, from the Bayside Glacier to the bowling alley.

While they do that, they'll also conduct a study about rebuilding or realigning Kennebec Street to Deering Oaks as a way to continue the Bayside Trail all the way to the park. There's talk of re-establishing Elm and Preble as 2-way streets as part of that.

More details here:
http://rightsofway.blogspot.com/2012/08/coming-soon-connected-somerset-street.html
 
Hopefully I'm just misremembering them being on the there, but I noticed there are no "Under Contract" signs for the Maritime Landing lots behind Planet Fitness/Trader Joes. I swear they used to be on there. Please don't tell me the city has f'd up negotiating a million square foot development
 
Would you be surprised? Deals like this fall apart all the time. It's one of the problems with mega projects. From what I understand, the P&S contract is pending some due diligence issue resolutions, and some other kinks may have been getting worked out, but the general direction was that it wouldn't derail, only delay, the project. Maybe the City took down the signs to show that it wants to speed things up and will entertain other proposals unless the developer proceeds? Don't know.
 
Well good news but three years?

Portland to take up $38 million Bayside development
The plan calls 40,000 square feet of retail, up to 176 apartments and a 700-space parking garage.

By Edward D. Murphy emurphy@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer

PORTLAND – The city and Federated Companies are moving ahead with a major redevelopment plan in the Bayside section of the city.

The Portland City Council's Housing and Community Development Committee is scheduled to take up some changes in the contract with Federated and recommend zoning changes on Wednesday.

If approved by the committee, the contract changes will go to the full City Council, while the zoning changes would go to the city Planning Board and later to the council.

The committee is expected to look at plans for a parking garage with at least 700 spaces that will be paid for in part with federal grant funds that would be repaid by capturing increased property taxes generated in the area, which stretches along Somerset Street, parallel to Marginal Way.

The proposal said the garage would cost about $15 million, with about $9 million coming from federal grants and the rest from Federated.

The committee will also look at a two-phase development plan that calls for building the parking garage, up to 176 apartments and about 40,000 square feet of retail space to be completed in about three years. The city said the value of the development will be about $38 million.

The second phase, for which no timetable or estimated value was provided, calls for nearly 500 apartments, another 340-space parking garage and nearly 50,000 square feet of additional retail space.

The committee will meet in City Hall room 209 at 5:30 p.m.
 
Things are difficult in the development industry. My guess is that if the market changed, the 3 year time period would become smaller. I think that's a cushion, because if I recall there are time constraints on the construction timetable in terms of when it has to be commenced by...and if they are not adhered to the City retained the right to repurchase the land. So, maybe 3 years is a max, and not necessarily the actual complete date. I don't believe the land has ever been purchased, so it sounds like the company probably wants to extent what I remember as a 2 year commence/complete date to make it a three year one. Phase one, also if I remember correctly, would be the garage, and a ten story building along Chestnut/Somerset on the West side of the street (across the street from the gym's parking lot on the same side of the road as Walgreens). News of a second parking garage is something I've not heard of before. Also, it appears the total residential might be up to nearly 700 now? This is a very good thing, and a longer build out won't be overall bad. If this popped up in the middle of virtually nowhere overnight, the only people who would be excited are urban enthusiasts (including me), but the rest of the city might say things were happening too fast in Bayside (see Eastern Waterfront). Longer build outs are fine, as long as the development is consistently urban (and as long as it happens!). Imagine if the Boulos project had a 7 year build out. No one would have liked that, yet at the same time it would have been completed last year already or possibly this year (proposed in 2004, nixed in 2005). Instead we have the grand top of the old port. Overall could be better, but I agree with you this is still good news.
 
Despite Councilor Leeman's bluster (which was transparently political theater, and frustratingly cynical — she'd been involved in these negotiations for a year now, remember, but now that everything's public she wants to make a stand? Methinks she doth protest too much. It was clear to most people there that she's cynically hedging against the possibility that the project might still not happen, so she's holding a door open to say "I told you so" in the future), the Committee endorsed the sale agreement last night.

My impressions here: http://rightsofway.blogspot.com/2012/09/maritime-landing-update.html

And here's an updated sketch plan of the project. Sorry for the quality (fluorescent light in the meeting room):

IMG_4139.JPG


We won't have real details of what the buildings might look like until Phase 1 (east of Chestnut St) goes for planning board approval sometime in the next year or so. They're under a deadline to finish Phase 1 within 3 years, so I'd expect planning approval would need to happen relatively soon to meet that schedule.
 
What the hell happened to the exciting and modern design in the pic they use in the brochure? That is terrible. That is a wall of bland similar buildings. The ground floors look like they have hope but that's about it. Got any other pics?

Seriously, look at the pics earlier in this thread PortlandArch posted as examples and then look at these.
 
cneal said:
Despite Councilor Leeman's bluster (which was transparently political theater, and frustratingly cynical — she'd been involved in these negotiations for a year now, remember, but now that everything's public she wants to make a stand? Methinks she doth protest too much. It was clear to most people there that she's cynically hedging against the possibility that the project might still not happen, so she's holding a door open to say "I told you so" in the future), the Committee endorsed the sale agreement last night.

My impressions here: http://rightsofway.blogspot.com/2012/09/maritime-landing-update.html

And here's an updated sketch plan of the project. Sorry for the quality (fluorescent light in the meeting room):

IMG_4139.JPG


We won't have real details of what the buildings might look like until Phase 1 (east of Chestnut St) goes for planning board approval sometime in the next year or so. They're under a deadline to finish Phase 1 within 3 years, so I'd expect planning approval would need to happen relatively soon to meet that schedule.
Click to expand...

First of all, wow. That's impressive and will do wonders for that neighborhood. Ultimately, it would set the stage for a much more densely urban downtown setting there, as opposed to a New Urbanist village sort of place, which I'm OK with but am a bit surprised by. Pleasantly.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given that the neighborhood wanted this, the City wanted this, the planners crafted this, and the developer is from two major cities (Miami, Boston) and progressively hoping to capitalize on the return to the cities movement in terms of getting a head start on the market. This many residents would be great. The eastern most tower would be the City's new tallest.

I have heard some concerns about the fact that the towers would literally be just springing from parking plinths in a mega super block fashion rather than organic architecture, but as you point out that and the other details are subject to change and being refined at a later stage of review (planning board) as well as hopefully will be responsive to staff input.

Second of all, Christian, I think that your assessment of Leeman is so right on that I have nothing to add to it. I'm glad that is apparent to some people.
 
cneal said:
My impressions here: http://rightsofway.blogspot.com/2012/09/maritime-landing-update.html
Click to expand...

I just posted this same comment to your blog, but I figured I’d use this opportunity to finally sign up for this forum (exciting times here in Portland...can't just sit on the sidelines), share my thoughts and introduce myself. More on that below.

As for your blog post, I like your insights about the potential for the buildings to be cheap in terms of rent and materials. Hopefully that gets vetted out. Personally I'm OK with the parking garages attached to both Phase 1 and Phase 2, as long as those are the ONLY two garages built in all of Bayside as things fill in around this development (and the other current garage at the corner of Oxford & Chestnut gets a facelift and something built on top of it). I don't see only residential development happening as things develop in Bayside. The parking will be needed if office towers are built, since you can't realistically expect all employees in those offices to live within walking, biking or bus distance without a vastly improved public transportation network spreading out into the suburbs (which is another discussion altogether). Companies won't move in if their employees living in the suburbs don't have a place to park. The parking garages will become even more important and relevant if the Top of the Old Port does get developed at some time in this millennium.

As for the introduction part – the name’s Marc, and I’ve been following this forum for what seems like years now. Like many of you I’m keenly interested in development in an around Portland (to be more specific, Portland itself and my home town of Westbrook). Unlikely many of you I’m not currently employed in the architectural, real estate or development world (I’m an insurance underwriter by trade). I’ve dreamed since I was a kid of becoming a developer, though not the “tear down a forest and build a subdivision” type; more of the “re-develop blighted areas within already established urban boundaries” type (I’m a bit of an environmentalist at heart). Part of my college senior thesis actually delved into that. Anyway, that dream hasn’t come to fruition (yet), but I’ve stayed interested and up-to-date on the latest development in and around Portland. This forum has been the primary source of that info. I thank you all for that.
 
Last edited:
Welcome aboard, Dr. StrangeHat. Always nice to learn of more Portland people with an interest in the type of things that we discuss here. I work in insurance also, but am just a lowly cubicle dweller. Good points about the parking needs related to this development. I too recognize that parking is necessary and also hope that these two garages are the last ones built in Bayside. The ugly "groundscraper" garage on the corner of Oxford and Chestnut would be a great candidate for being incorporated into a new structure. There is certainly room along a couple sides to build something that adds value.
 
Simply Gorgoeus Picture Corey - Thanks. Pearl Place II Really Coming Along
 
From last weekend, still under construction:

N5oAJ.jpg
 
Martime's submission is up. No new pics. Just a zoning change app. The structur will be taller than permitted unless a step back is designed but I don't think they want that. Project is huge.
 
That really is a huge project. The last phases look the best. Too bad they'll never be built
 
A before and after using the planning board submission and google maps:

V9a45.jpg


sJ9QG.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top