Portland, ME - New Construction Continued

portlandneedsnewarena said:
In today's Bangor Daily News there is an article that reads "Portland's mayor likes the plan to build a downtown skyscraper". Also, in the article NIMBY Tim Paradis (Keep Portland Livable) who led the opposition to the Midtown development is speaking out and states that "If Portland started putting mini-skyscrapers all over the place it would damage Portland's brand. It would damage the reasons people come here to visit, and it does not need to happen". Good grief! That guy just needs to go away!
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LOL, what is a mini-skyscraper? We have a word for that: highrise.
 
The main reason for my pessimism - NIMBY Tim Paradis. I read the BDN article about the tallest in Maine proposal and puked in my mouth after reading the part about him. We can thank him for the much delayed and now stubby Midtown project. Did he come from Mass? Can someone pick him up and bring him back down there? PLEASE?
 
I don't hate many people, but I outright loathe Tim Paradis and Peter Monroe. I'd like to show those two a good place to put a mini-skysraper, and it won't tickle.
 
My main thought about the Old Port proposal itself (other than that it should go in the Top of the East lots) is that it's going to kill the views from the Canal Plaza offices and the Hyatt. The Hyatt might not have great views anyway from that side, but at least they're not cramped.

So far as KPL goes, I'm a Portland native, and I've always felt that Portland is Maine's largest city and it should act like it. We shouldn't be trying to be Camden and I don't care if people who come here from away are trying to leave something, if that's something I want to have here.
 
What is not being discussed in the tall building debate is type of building. A 23 story office building does not enhance the neighborhood as much as a residential or hotel one. At 6pm with tall office buildings (and on weekends), the area becomes deserted. You should of seen downtown L.A. in the 90's... with few residential and hotel buildings, it was like a desertion scene from a Sci-fi film (thus all the movie filming started). A 23 story residential "tower" in the Old Port would make the area even more dynamic (more people) and popular. As a comparison, Vancouver models this (taller residential) and the city has a great social vibe. In Tokyo, they get around it a bit with numerous 50 story buildings by putting the hotels and apartments on the upper 15 floors. I've stayed at one of these before, and a hotel lobby with giant windows on the 35th floor looking out at the city is awesome. And if one more person says that Portland will become Boston or New York, I think a psychiatric intervention will be necessary. But of course if people want to go by "feeling things" and not critical thinking, this is what you get.
 
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I would suggest that this development (CatchyNameToFollow(tm) ) might deserve its own thread, but every time that happens nothing ever gets built (Midtown, Forefront). :)
 
mainejeff said:
So little commentary for such a huge proposal.....where did everyone go?
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Maybe we've become too jaded after every other major proposal in Portland over the past few decades has not come to fruition?

Lincoln Square (both proposals)
Maine State Pier
midtown (in original form, though no shovels in the ground still)
Thompson's Point (in original form)
etc.

I do think this proposal deserves it's own thread. Maybe that will kick start some discussion?
 
mainejeff said:
So little commentary for such a huge proposal.....where did everyone go?
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Dr. Stangehat nailed it - a lot of us are pretty jaded after the above ^ listed debacles. All of these new plans are great in my mind, but be prepared for them to be chopped down significantly. I will add to that list - remember Waterview (12 floors), Graves hill (around 10-11 floors), the original Westin plan (around 10 floors) and the original plan for the Newbury street lofts (up to 11 floors)?
 
I feel quite a bit more confident about this happening than those other projects, for several reasons. First of all, these guys have more practical experience as developers under their belts than the people who pitched most of those other projects, save midtown's Federated (we should have all been more skeptical of the Thompson's Point scheme when they told us it was going to be anchored by a basketball arena and a "circus college").

And unlike midtown, these guys also already own the land outright, in a much more attractive location, and they already won a referendum challenging their project in a landslide – even among voters on Munjoy Hill.

Finally, Peter Monro and Tim Paradis lost a lot of face after they smothered Bayside's long-standing redevelopment ambitions (although, with egos as bloated as theirs, it's a debatable whether they're capable of self-awareness on this point). There were some private polls done before the election, and there's a reason why the "No on 2" group had their first press conference on the empty lots of midtown. It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to follow those guys' ugly example.

Still, it's a huge project, likely to take many years 'til it looks anything like these renderings. And all bets are off once the next recession hits us.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
Maybe we've become too jaded after every other major proposal in Portland over the past few decades has not come to fruition?

Lincoln Square (both proposals)
Maine State Pier
midtown (in original form, though no shovels in the ground still)
Thompson's Point (in original form)
etc.

I do think this proposal deserves it's own thread. Maybe that will kick start some discussion?
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Don't forget the sun bank and trust building, Waterview at Bayside, Village at Oceangate, the Watermark, new civic center, Lincoln Center (Boulos), courthouse tower, Pearl Street tower, Cacoulidis tower, Fox Tower, condos on Falmouth town line, and the waterfront condos proposed for the Dimillos parking lot, but who's keeping track
 
Patrick said:
Don't forget the sun bank and trust building, Waterview at Bayside, Village at Oceangate, the Watermark, new civic center, Lincoln Center (Boulos), courthouse tower, Pearl Street tower, Cacoulidis tower, Fox Tower, condos on Falmouth town line, and the waterfront condos proposed for the Dimillos parking lot, but who's keeping track
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What have been the main factors holding back Portland? Is there a Menino-type mayor who always sides with NIMBY's? I was just in the city Monday and loved it as always, 3rd favorite city in New England behind Boston/Cambridge and Providence. It's very walkable and the new filler has been good for adding more density. It would be great to see more tall buildings rising on Congress Street, maybe as large as 15-25 stories.

On another note I just discovered this bridge in Maine on my way to Acadia and it blew me away. (as did Acadia) I had no idea it even existed! Tallest bridge observatory in the world! (out of only 4 in the world, and 1 in the US) I'll try to post some pics if I ever get around to it.
http://maine.gov/mdot/pnbo/
 
DZH22 said:
What have been the main factors holding back Portland? Is there a Menino-type mayor who always sides with NIMBY's? I was just in the city Monday and loved it as always, 3rd favorite city in New England behind Boston/Cambridge and Providence. It's very walkable and the new filler has been good for adding more density. It would be great to see more tall buildings rising on Congress Street, maybe as large as 15-25 stories.

On another note I just discovered this bridge in Maine on my way to Acadia and it blew me away. (as did Acadia) I had no idea it even existed! Tallest bridge observatory in the world! (out of only 4 in the world, and 1 in the US) I'll try to post some pics if I ever get around to it.
http://maine.gov/mdot/pnbo/
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That bridge is really cool but Boston had it first...still neat for a rural state though. We do have a mayor who tends to side with NIMBYs in his actions while professing otherwise in his words (just like NIMBYs are not against all development, just the development that's proposed). But that's not it. It's staff (some are good, many are obstructionist), it's a complex land use code that amounts to vague requirements at best and extortion at worst, it's an untrained planning board, it's the public, it's the tension of old and new, gentrification, cost of housing concerns resulting in artificial market barriers that do nothing to assist the issue, increasing costs due to labor shortages, city fees, etc., tight land supply, marine soils, antiquated transit, and the fact that attracting capital to a tertiary market like this is always more difficult thus making chances of success tied to public subsidies more than typical (with all the politics and waste of time that comes with that). Not to mention a lack of sophistication from all but a small group of people as someone else noted...and then there's population that doesn't really support major developments.
 
Noticed a company conducting soil boring tests in numerous locations in the Portland Square parking lot closest to Spring Street today. Good sign for some of the recent development rumors on that site that may finally become a reality.
 
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No renderings here, but there is a proposal for a 5-story mixed use building on the currently vacant lot at the corner of Congress and Washington:

http://me-portland.civicplus.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/4241?fileID=18310

A really nice mural went up there recently. Also saw recently that the property across the street at the corner of Washington and Cumberland is being marketed for development. Currently mainly vacant except for an odd little shack that was being used by Otto's pizza for awhile.
 
Cosakita18 said:
I'm new to the forum, so forgive me if this has already been discussed, but I just discovered this design by Archetype of a tower at the corner of Pearl and Congress St. Along with massings for several other towers further back towards Cumberland Ave. Is this proposal still active?

http://archetype-architects.com/projects/congress-and-pearl-street/
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Interesting find. I haven't seen this before, but it looks very preliminary. The mockup's URL would indicate it was created in August 2015, so it's likely been well over a year since it was created and I haven't heard a peep about a proposal on this site. The URL also seems to indicate it would be home to a law school, but again I haven't heard anything.

http://archetype-architects.com/wp-...AND-METRO-S-E-Corner-Law-School-Rendering.jpg
 
I think cneal posted something about this on here a while back. Here's what I can tell from the various things I've read, none of which I can readily confirm the accuracy of. The property is, I believe, part of the real estate holdings of John Cacoulidis (who gained fame or notoriety depending on your perspective when he proposed twin skyscrapers in South Portland), or more accurately of his company which I believe is now controlled by his son in large part. In 2009 he proposed a 30 story building on this site. A few years later, he sold the other half of the related property across the street and it eventually became the Press Hotel in the former PPH building. The renderings may have been done to advertise the site as opposed to an actual proposal, which is not uncommon (see corner of Cumberland and Washington for a similar concept). However, the intent to create a new law school is very much real, and active. The school has been considering for well over a decade where to relocate, and has looked at sites in Bayside and on Western Commercial, and just recently the UMS system announced consolidation of the UMaine and USM MBA program along with the law school and other graduate programs into a new professional center ($150 million) which would need to be built somewhere and the presumable location would be a place close to the courts, city hall, and amenities that would attract out of state students, all of which are presented in that rendering's location. So yes I think it is preliminary but I also wouldn't be surprised if it's tied to something that will materialize in the future.
 
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