Portland, ME - New Construction Continued

hey nice comment on the pph site, dom...not going to the gym at night anymore, I go before work every morning. what a pain in the ass. There are so many people in there in the morning its not even funny, and they all think they are mr. suave by dressing all J-Crew after they finish working out. ridiculous. tryign to flirt with the desk girls. haha. whatever. sometime well bump heads again. and when we do, give me a shout. seriously.
 
Hey guys - were there any pics or graphics that went along with the story in today's PPH? I didn't see any online.
 
Yeah, there was actually a really good pic that went with it. Scott Simons is the architect and mocked up what they would like the area to look like. Lot of glass buildings and really nice groundwork around them. It's not on the Scott Simon site. Not sure where to find it.
 
Damn. Maybe I will email Turkel and see if he can email me a jpg.
 
was it the same rendering that was posted on here a while back...the one wiith whole foods way over in the corner and a bunch of blue buildings?
 
No, I've never seen that pic. Wait, I have the paper. I could take a pic of the pic and post it. Too lazy to do it right now.
 
Pearl Place is moving along quickly, and custom house wharf is almost topped out. it looks really dense. cant wait for the shiny exterior to go on.
 
Final plan submittedfor Village Cafe condos
By Kate Bucklin (published: February 15, 2007)
PORTLAND ? A Boston developer will go back before the Planning Board this month, armed with a conditional rezoning from the City Council and a final plan to build 167 condominium units in the Eastern Waterfront.

GFI Residential of Boston is no stranger to the board, having spent almost a year and a half meeting with planners to come up with a design for the 1.8-acre Village Cafe property on Newbury Street. Last September the board split 3-3 on recommending the council conditionally rezone the property for The Village at Ocean Gate.

The council eventually granted the special zoning to GFI in November and last week the Planning Department received plans from the developer for a two-phase, four-building project that would straddle Newbury Street and include space for a new Village Cafe. The existing restaurant would be torn down if the project moves forward.

GFI is proposing a four-building complex instead of the three buildings its most recent proposal included. The building closest to the new Federal Street Townhouses ? building 4 ? will abide by a 25-foot setback and, along with another phase 2 building, will be under 65 feet in height.

The newest design also has about 10 fewer units than the plan last fall. According to the project summary, building 167 units allows for more two-bedroom units in phase 1. There are also 185 ground-level, indoor parking spots.

Buildings 1 and 2 in, part of the first phase of construction, would replace the Village Cafe building and parking lot. Those buildings would be 76,000 and 70,000 square feet, respectively. Buildings 3 and 4 would be constructed on the other side of Newbury Street and be 40,600 and 45,000 square feet.

Each phase has parking on the bottom. The first phase includes the 3,000-square-foot restaurant and another 3,700 square feet for commercial use.

The Village at Ocean Gate was first proposed in May 2005 and at that time included 250 condos in four buildings, varying in height from four to nine stories. Ground-level parking for 332 cars was also included.

Barbara Barhydt, the city?s development review services manager, said the project had not changed a great deal from its November details, except for returning to the four-building configuration.

If the Planning Board approves the plans, GFI would purchase the property from Village Cafe owner John Reali.

Demitrios Dasco, managing partner for GFI, has said the condos would be moderately priced and cost about $300 per square foot to build. The project is a total of 63,800 square feet.

GFI is expected to meet with the Planning Board in a workshop Feb. 27.

Kate Bucklin can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 106 or kbucklin@theforecaster.n
 
mercy hospital is a lot taller than I thought it would be at only 4 stories. and maine meds expansion is looking very tall as well. you can see it from outside of downtown.
 
Officials make case for library expansion

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By KELLEY BOUCHARD, Staff Writer

Thursday, March 1, 2007



The Portland Public Library's main branch would be more organized, attractive and user-friendly if it moved into the former Portland Public Market, library officials said Wednesday at a Bayside neighborhood meeting.
Those benefits outweigh the loss of the main branch's presence on Congress Street, at Monument Square, said library Director Stephen Podgajny.
"We're basically asking the city to switch assets," Podgajny said, "to provide the highest quality experience for library users."
Some people have told library officials they are concerned that the market building is slightly closer to the city's homeless population, Podgajny said. A section of Bayside, near Preble and Oxford streets, hosts several shelters and agencies that serve homeless people.
Podgajny said being closer to the city's homeless population wouldn't be a problem because the library serves all people, asking only that they treat the building, its resources and other patrons with respect.
"We're a behavior-based place," Podgajny said. "I don't care if you have a suit on or you don't have a roof over your head."
Library officials are promoting a $9.6 million proposal to buy and renovate the 9-year-old market building on Cumberland Avenue rather than move forward with an $8.5 million renovation of the main branch. The market building is next to the 28-year-old main branch.
Podgajny showed concept plans for the two-story market building at a meeting at Merrill Rehearsal Hall sponsored by the Bayside Neighborhood Association and the Portland Taxpayers Association. About 20 people attended.
The market proposal is scheduled for a public hearing and City Council vote on Monday. A majority of councilors have expressed support. If the council approves the purchase, a citywide referendum likely would be held June 12.
The market proposal would add $1 million to the $4 million bond issue that a unanimous council and 65 percent of Portland voters approved in 2004 to renovate the main branch.
The proposal calls for selling the four-level main branch and leasing some portion of its 27,000-square-foot basement for library offices and storage of lesser-used books. That would help make up the space difference between the 78,000-square-foot main branch and the 37,000-square-foot market building.
David Storer, a Bayside resident, said he opposes the plan to separate lesser-used books from popular collections because he believes it would make it more difficult to borrow lesser-used books.
Podgajny said separating the library system's lesser-used materials and central offices, eventually at a location possibly off the downtown peninsula, would lower costs and improve access to books at the city's six library branches.
The concept plan for the first floor of the market building includes areas for children's books, young adults, adult fiction, CDs and DVDs, public computer use, a cafe and a living room where a stone fireplace is located.
The market proposal also calls for expanding the second-floor mezzanine, which would add 21,000 square feet to the building. The concept plan for the second floor includes areas for nonfiction, reference materials, a Great Reading Room for periodicals, the Portland Room's historical collections, several meeting rooms and an expanded Rines Auditorium.
The sky-walk entrance to the parking garage across Cumberland Avenue would be maintained.
Susan Doran, an East End resident, said library trustees should seek input from various community groups in the project's final design, including immigrants, senior citizens and business owners.
The market proposal would require library officials to add $100,000 to the $4.5 million they've been trying to raise as their share of the main-branch renovation. So far, they have raised about half that amount.
Steven Scharf, president of the taxpayers' group, said he supports the market proposal but believes library officials should raise an additional $1 million to enhance the project.
Library trustees plan to buy the market building from Guggenheim Real Estate LLC, a national real estate investment company that bought the building from the Libra Foundation last year.
If the market proposal is rejected, Field said, the trustees would move ahead with renovations to the main branch.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
 
I liked the renderings for what they were gonna do to the monument square side of the existing library. If they sold that I can only hope that something new would be built there.
 
I liked that rendering, too. I think whatever happens the old building will be re-modeled and not torn down. Going to a meeting there tonight after work on the pier proposals.
 
anyone know why Genos parking lot on congress street is being filled in by some crummy side extension to the building instead of that 4-story apartment building that was supposed to go there?
 
just found this from the early 1990s. there used to be plans to majorly rennovate the civic center and attach the loargest convention center in northern new england. I think its on page 94 or around there somewhere. it also talsk about the lincoln square project and how the blocks where the lincoln center proposal was floated should be used to make a high commercial office building oriented toward cumberland ave. this was17 years ago, and two proposals later we still have nothing there but a parking lot. also wanted to develop that lawn near the police station with a large project, but nothing came of it. http://www.portlandmaine.gov/planning/downtownvision.pdf
 
The addition to the building next to Geno's is for a new elevator. Nothing special.
 
New elevator? It looka a little small to be for that. What is on the top floor?

also, I thought there was supposed to be a new apartment building going in that empty lot there?

Did you check out the new renderings in the bayside thread? Intermed has changed a lot from the time your brother showed us the original renderings; Im nto sure which one I like best. The new one is pretty sweet but a littlle too bricky
 
The new Intermed design seems to have a lot more glass than the original. The only thing I don't like is that it doesn't look as good from the 295 view. There was a pic of the back of it in the paper today. Good info on that and the Student Housing in the Real estate section.
 
The number of Starbucks in greater portland just rose by one -- at lunch today I overheard a lady in starbucks by the mall stating she is about to open a new location in Falmouth on route 1.

That brings the total around portland to something like half a dozen or more.
 
Yep, one is opening in Falmouth. The new one of Forest Ave is opening in April. I'm sure there will 2 or 3 more in the next few years, especially with the waterfront stuff. The nicest Starbucks I've ever been to is down on the water at the end of the North End in Boston, near those new pier condos. Down there you don't even need to know where they are, just pick a direction and walk.
 
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