From 2007
2nd tallest office building in Portland proposed
The Boulos Co. is proposing to build a major office tower on
land in downtown Portland owned by Cumberland County; in
return, it would build a separate, 12,000-square-foot office
building for the county.
The plan calls for seven floors of office space built on top of five
levels of parking, a building whose height would far exceed the
65-foot limit for that area. The project would need a parcel of
city-owned land and a zoning change approved by the City
Council.
Nearby residents say they are concerned less about the size of
the building than about making sure that it improves the flow of
people between Munjoy Hill and downtown, which is hampered
now by Franklin Arterial.
They plan to make their voices heard at the county's first public
hearing on the proposal, starting at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the
Peter J. Feeney conference room at the county courthouse.
County officials say they are eager for public feedback on the
plan.
"We're just taking this a bite at a time, and we certainly want to
be working with the neighborhood associations and getting their
input," said County Commissioner Richard Feeney, a member of
the committee that has been reviewing building proposals for
several months.
The office tower's height could present a major hurdle for the
project. Even city officials who seemed to favor the concept were
startled to learn that the building would be so much taller than
city zoning standards allow.
"It is wildly out of scale with what's contemplated for that
location," said at-large City Councilor John Anton, a former
Planning Board member.
"In the broad strokes, I want to support what the county is trying
to do and I'd love Boulos to do some work in town. ... The
proposal exceeds what's expressed by the policy document by
two and a half times, and that's just a red flag for me," he said.
The building would be constructed alongside the Cumberland
County courthouse, on a site that's now a parking lot and other
land closer to Franklin Arterial.
The office tower must be that large for the project to have the
economies of scale needed to give the county a 12,000-square-
foot building, said Charlie Miller, a managing partner at the law
firm Bernstein Shur, who helped negotiate the deal for the
county. The county would get a building worth more than $2
million, in exchange for about a half-acre that's worth about
$1.2 million.
The county would have to do the interior work in the building.
Gregory Boulos said CBRE/The Boulos Co., which he runs with
his brother Joseph Boulos, wants to accommodate the county's
needs while proposing a viable project. The project would take
two to three years to complete, and wouldn't be built unless a
major tenant committed to lease space there.
"We believe this is a great site for an office building, given its
proximity to downtown and its access to Franklin Arterial and
the courthouse," Boulos said Friday. "We think the location will
attract a tenant, which would allow us to build it and satisfy us
and the county's need, and be a building that hopefully would
appeal to folks in Portland."
To demonstrate the interest that such a building would have, the
company has a letter from the Pierce Atwood law firm indicating
that the firm wants to lease 70,000 square feet, with the
possibility of expanding to 100,000 square feet. The letter does
not commit to a lease but does express interest and support for
the building's construction.
Bruce Coggeshall, managing partner for Pierce Atwood, said the
firm's space at One Monument Square needs upgrading and the
firm is considering moving. It plans to renew its lease or move
by 2011, he said, to another building in Portland or to the
suburbs.
Demand for commercial real estate in downtown Portland
remains strong, with a vacancy rate of about 7 percent, said
James Harnden, president of Ram Harnden Commercial Real
Estate Services. Demand for office space in Portland is above the
regional and national averages, and it has not suffered so far
from a slowdown in the economy.
The county has been exploring ways to meet its space needs for
the past six years. It has had to carve offices out of closets and
spaces beneath stairwells in the county courthouse, said County
Manager Peter Crichton, but because it faces a budget crunch, it
is exploring expansion options that wouldn't burden taxpayers.
The county now wants to own a building in exchange for the
land. Only one of the three developers that have submitted
proposals, the Boulos Co., would let it do that, Crichton said.
The private office building would have 105,000 square feet of
space and a 269-car parking garage. At 12 stories, it would be
taller than most buildings on the Portland peninsula but smaller
than One City Center, which is 13 stories and 200,000 square
feet, and the 18-story Franklin Towers housing project.
Its height has been described as 150 to 170 feet, well short of
the 204-foot-high spire of the Cathedral of the Immaculate
Conception. One block away, 100 Middle St. is seven stories tall
and has about 100,000 square feet in each of two towers.
City planners have indicated a desire to accommodate major
buildings on the peninsula and developed height restrictions
that allow the tallest buildings on the spine of the peninsula.
The county's site, between Federal and Newbury streets, is about
a block from where the tallest buildings -- 190 feet -- are
allowed. It is in an area where the height limit is 65 feet.
In 2004, Joseph Boulos proposed building a convention center
and arena on land bounded by Congress Street, Cumberland
Avenue and Franklin Arterial, where larger buildings are
permitted. But the plan relied on state approval of a local option
sales tax, and the Legislature did not approve one.
Preliminary designs of the Federal Street project will be
presented Monday night, Boulos said.
"Depending on what the commissioners say and the
neighborhood associations, there's room for movement in terms
of the design of the building and what gets built," Boulos said.
"This would be a tall building but would not be the biggest
building in town."
The county has asked for a design that complements the granite
facade of the county courthouse and is not a rectangular
monolith. The developer has proposed a building that meets
energy efficiency and sustainability guidelines outlined by the
U.S. Green Building Council.
The project would produce about $250,000 in annual property
tax payments to the city.
Katie Brown, a member of the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood
Association's board, said the building could represent an
opportunity to make Franklin Arterial more pedestrian-friendly,
something that residents and businesses in Portland's East End,
Munjoy Hill and Bayside neighborhoods have advocated.
"We're far less concerned about the height of it than the face of
it on the Franklin Street side," she said.
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
