Portland, ME - New Construction Continued

The office building is more impressive than I thought it was going to be. Stunning makeover of the area bounded by Newbury, Mountfort, Thames and India Streets. I dubbed this part of Portland as the "New Port" many years ago and the vision is becoming a reality! Nice find SHAZ.
 
Some off-peninsula development

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/05...ment-revived-on-riverside-street-in-portland/

plans for 874 Riverside St., which were made public last week, would include four industrial-looking buildings near the Presumpscot River. Two pairs of two-story buildings would flank a shared plaza. One building is being proposed as a 5,000-square-foot brewery and another is proposed as five light-industrial workspaces. The other two buildings would allow people to live and work in the same location.
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A few photos updates from last weekend...

Bramhall Row

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Widgery Wharf Office Building

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CPort Credit Union Branch & The Mason Block

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Glass going up on the new office space built into the Ocean Gateway Garage

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A Corner of the new WEX Building

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20 Thames, AC Marriott, WEX

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It appears there could finally be something happening with the Schwartz Building at the corner of Congress and High Streets, as a bunch of paper went up on the windows today. Or it could just be another temporary art project is setting up in there, I don't know. But this building sitting vacant is a major drag on the whole square, so I hope it can come to life soon. It's been approved for a dozen apartments and ground floor retail, but it's mostly just looked like an 8th grade woodworking shop on the inside for the last year or so.

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The new (old) sign on the State Theatre is very...bright:

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Would be great to finally get some activity in the Schwartz Building and there has been interest and missed opportunities as mentioned. Heard that the owner is eccentric and not the easiest to deal with and has also not put much effort into maintaining his Trelawny Building. Reminds me of Joe Soley's approach to property ownership/management and it's sad because the Schwartz Building can be a key contributor to the future makeover of Congress Square.
 
Lots of new renderings for the proposed 180 Washington Ave condo building on their website:

http://www.180washingtonportlandmaine.com/

I don't recall this going before the Planning Board, but maybe I missed it. The building would be squeezed in between the one-story brick All State and AmVets buildings.
 
^ Interesting. It has not gone to the planning board yet, and I suspect they're trying to pre-sell some units before they go ahead with detailed plans and permitting.

I've always thought that selling $500K condos at this location (with lots of traffic noise from Washington and I-295) was going to be a stretch. It looks like this current iteration has done some substantial cost-cutting from the last – more tiny studio units, less parking. I'm still skeptical, though. There are dozens of similarly-priced units coming on the market along India Street and I don't think there are enough millionaires in Maine to occupy all of them.

Maybe if they got rid of the ground-level parking altogether and replaced it with leasable retail space...
 
Max said:
A bunch of new renderings of the Rufus Deering redevelopment in their new packet for the Historic Preservation Board: http://www.portlandmaine.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Item/6274?fileID=33808

I wonder what's going on with the Baxter Academy building now that the school has moved to Bayside. It is a bit odd that the building will essentially be encircled by this new development.

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I could have sworn this project already had planning approval. Are they going back to the drawing board and back through the planning process?
 
Thumbs up for the hotel structure. Developer's proposal states that Phase I will include the hotel, a portion of the mixed-use building in the middle, and the pedestrian walkway. Does that mean that the middle structure will be completed on Commercial and halfway up to York St? Plans don't really detail what a portion of the middle structure means. Thanks Max!
 
Large mixed use development planed around the recently sold Falmouth Shopping center. Plans include 150ish residential units office space, senior care center, sports center, hotel, retail, and more. Also involves re-configuring the I-295 Falmouth approach ramp.


PPH article : https://www.pressherald.com/2018/06/01/massive-expansion-planned-for-falmouth-strip-mall/

Master plan can be viewed on their new website

https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...ae6cf39796be180/1527711625756/MASTER+PLAN.pdf
 
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Portlander said:
Developer's proposal states that Phase I will include the hotel, a portion of the mixed-use building in the middle, and the pedestrian walkway. Does that mean that the middle structure will be completed on Commercial and halfway up to York St? Plans don't really detail what a portion of the middle structure means. Thanks Max!
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As far as I can tell, Phase 1 would include both of the those buildings as illustrated in that rendering, as written in hand below it is "Illustrates Limits of Phase 1."

Interestingly, in the real estate section of today's Sunday Telegram they are marketing the condos as "The Terraces at 43 North," with completion scheduled for Summer 2020.

http://www.43northportland.com/
 
Noticed the rendering portraying the "limits" of Phase I, but the narrative in the first paragraph states that a portion of the mixed use middle building would be developed. My guess is that the larger 6 story structure that fronts York Street will be built when demand warrants it along with the remainder of the project. This works because extending the facades on Commercial Street westwardly is more important in my opinion than York Street just in case the overall project stalls due to unforeseen events.
 
You could be right, and maybe they're already marketing the condos in an effort to gauge how much demand they've got and hence how much of Phase 1 they'd want to build.

That said, I might hesitate to buy an expensive condo if I was told that a year or two down the road "the rest" of the building would be built, especially if my unit was contiguous with the new construction, my view was going to be altered and/or I would have to deal with the sights/sounds of up-close construction for months on end.
 
My reading is that everything in the rendering is phase 1, and the "part of" refers to the fact that the Phase 2 building will share a party wall with the Phase 1 building.

Also of note: this project will cash in from the new "opportunity zone" tax breaks, since it's located on the southern edge of Portland's "distressed" downtown census tract:

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/05...s-tracts-included-in-maines-opportunity-zone/
 
Interesting to note that two of the largest Tennants at 100 Fore Street will be out by the end of the summer. Does anyone have any more details about the fate of 100 Fore?
 
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