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Patrick
Guest
excellent!
Perfect! Something in Portland 10 stories finally has a chance of being built! I'm not keeping my hopes up too much but the court ruling is definitely a step in the right direction.
And yes the time and temp building is 477 Cong. Street.
And yes the time and temp building is 477 Cong. Street.
P
Patrick
Guest
yeah well until the westin decided to scale itself back, it was going to be just shy of ten stories...and graves hill from one angle will be two 11-story buildings, and they were pushing a while back to add another story to the 9-story building for intermed in bayside. why am i saying all of this that everyone already knows? because none of those projects have materialized, and this one wont either. im with you s-roll, not keeping my hopes up at all.
P
Patrick
Guest
Portland: Group to use grant for community development
PORTLAND ? The Bayside Neighborhood Association has received a $7,500 grant from the Cummings Fund of the Maine Community Foundation to establish a new branch of the association that will be dedicated to community development.
The Bayside Community Development Corp. will focus on revitalizing the neighborhood by promoting housing, business and job programs, as well as supporting live-work space for artists and other cultural activities.
"This grant will aid our organizational and planning efforts," said Steve Hirshon, an association member.
PORTLAND ? The Bayside Neighborhood Association has received a $7,500 grant from the Cummings Fund of the Maine Community Foundation to establish a new branch of the association that will be dedicated to community development.
The Bayside Community Development Corp. will focus on revitalizing the neighborhood by promoting housing, business and job programs, as well as supporting live-work space for artists and other cultural activities.
"This grant will aid our organizational and planning efforts," said Steve Hirshon, an association member.
P
Patrick
Guest
Hometown 'dreamer' changing the appearance of Old Orchard Beach
By SETH HARKNESS, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright ? 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
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Staff photo by Derek Davis
Staff photo by Derek Davis
Tim Swenson works at Acorn Village, 32 condominiums that are among several projects he is developing in Old Orchard Beach. He's proposing two projects to transform downtown.
DEVELOPER'S PROJECTS
These are Tim Swenson's Old Orchard Beach construction projects:
2001 - 12 houses in Dunegrass, Dunegrass Golf Course
2002-2002 - 32-unit Fairway Pond condominium project, Dunegrass Golf Course
2003-2004 - 24-unit Surfside condominium project, East Grand Avenue
2005-2006 - 32-unit Acorn Village condominium project on Walnut Street
2005-2007 - 67-unit Grand Victorian on Old Orchard Street
2006 - Four-unit Surfside II condominium project, East Grand Avenue
To top of story
OLD ORCHARD BEACH ? The developer most responsible for the wave of gentrification sweeping through downtown Old Orchard Beach is unlikely to be mistaken for one of the buyers of the $500,000 condominiums he's building. A lifetime resident of Old Orchard Beach, Tim Swenson comes from the sort of working-class family that has been the mainstay of this town's year-round and tourist population for generations. Both his father and grandfather were builders.
At the site of Grand Victorian, the $20 million condominium and retail project he expects to finish early next year, Swenson wears boots and jeans and hops in and out of a bulldozer, blending easily with the rest of his construction crew.
Some have expressed concerns that Swenson's project may leave little room for the town's traditional blue-collar clientele. Others describe the developer as a visionary in a hard hat.
Almost everyone agrees Swenson is ambitious and is playing a leading role in the redevelopment of Old Orchard Beach. In Swenson's mind, this is mostly a matter of timing and fate. "Old Orchard Beach is ready for a change and I'm just the guy who I guess was chosen to go forward," he said.
With the Grand Victorian nearing completion, the 41-year-old developer with bristly gray hair is drawing up plans for another $50 million of construction within blocks of the condominium complex. Though it's all preliminary, he is proposing two projects that would transform the downtown of this resort community. Swenson wants to build an eight-story hotel with an attached parking garage straddling the train tracks as well as a pair of piers next to the iconic, if slightly dilapidated, pier at the foot of Old Orchard Street.
Both projects stand little chance of happening without public support. As with the Grand Victorian, Swenson would need a zoning variance because of the hotel's height. He is also seeking to buy a piece of town-owned land to build the hotel. Voters will decide if they want to sell the property through a referendum on the November ballot.
Regardless of the vote's outcome, it is somewhat remarkable that a project of this sort is under discussion. Just five years ago, few people would have imagined something like this being built in downtown Old Orchard Beach, an area that had seen no significant construction in decades.
MAKING BELIEVERS OF MANY
Since then, some say Swenson's apparent success with the the Grand Victorian - all but 10 of the project's 67 condos are sold - has expanded many people's notions of the town's potential.
"He's converted a lot of people townwide," said Town Councilor Jim Long. "People thought it would never happen, couldn't be done."
Others offered a more tepid assessment of the project, saying it is destroying the essential character of a place which has long derived its charm from its rough edges and affordability.
"The community got along fine with old bars and people feeling comfortable here and people coming to have a cheap vacation on one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet," said Alan Dvorkis, a professional gambler who has split his time between Las Vegas and Old Orchard for more than 20 years.
Dvorkis said he sees no need to make Old Orchard Beach "an Ogunquit-type place." These sort of changes, he said, will only drive up taxes and drive out lower-income residents and visitors.
But other longtime residents, such as former town manager Jerry Plante, maintain gentrification will benefit people with lower incomes by increasing the tax base and funneling money into the town's schools and infrastructure. "Working people will appreciate the changes as well," he said. "We won't be able to live on the shore front, I admit that, but we will still be able to live here."
CONSTRUCTION'S IN HIS BLOOD
In many ways, Swenson's career has mirrored the fortunes of his hometown. He grew up around construction sites, working with his grandfather, John Girard, a carpenter and contractor who built many of the hotels in Old Orchard Beach.
As a teenager, he stocked prizes and ran carnival games at Village Park, a maze of kiosks and games the size of a city block.
Twenty-five years later he would buy the property at the foot of Old Orchard Street from his former employers and level it to make room for the Grand Victorian.
Swenson's own father, a finish carpenter who worked for his grandfather, died in a car accident when Swenson was 3 years old. His mother never remarried, raising five boys and a girl on Social Security payments.
After graduating from Old Orchard Beach High School in 1983, Swenson went away to college for a year. When he came home, he started doing construction work with one of his uncles and later began his own excavation business. He owned a bar for three years, the Dugout, where draft beer sold for 25 cents on Thursday nights. He built a few condominium projects around town, but nothing on the scale of what he's doing today.
Things began to change, he said, when he got married five years ago.
"That's when my wife, Victoria, came and straightened out the ship," he said. "Until I got married, things didn't really start to click."
The couple work closely as a team. She runs the office out of their home and handles all the finances and billing. He makes the deals and oversees construction. "He's the dreamer. I'm the organizer," said Victoria, originally from Florida, for whom the Grand Victorian is named.
METHODS IMPRESS TOWN MANAGER
Town Manager Jim Thomas said he has been impressed with Swenson's ability to get people to subscribe to his dreams. With the hotel project, for instance, the town manager said he anticipated Swenson was in for a litigious, protracted negotiation with Pan Am Railways, formerly known as Guilford Rail System, to obtain air rights over the train tracks. Instead, Swenson asked to leave all the lawyers behind and met directly with officials from the railroad. Within three months, he had an option to buy the air rights.
"I'm surprised it went as quickly as it did," Thomas said. "Tim had an idea and Guilford bought into it."
Thomas said that he does have some reservations about the way Swenson does business. He said he is concerned that Swenson's exuberance occasionally gets the best of him. In his view, for instance, Swenson should have waited to announce the hotel project until his plans were more sharply focused. This way there would be less chance of confusing the voters whose support he needs, Thomas said.
The town manager said he is also concerned that Swenson works on a narrow profit margin that leaves little room for error. "Sometimes I think people try to take advantage of him. The prices he's paid for property have been on the high end," he said.
STAYING CLOSE TO HOME
Swenson said he tries to deliver the best product for the lowest price and he said this does mean his profits are lower than many people might think. He declined to say what he expected to make on the Grand Victorian but said it was a small fraction of the project's cost.
"I'm making more money than I ever made, but still not as much as everybody thinks," he said.
Since the Grand Victorian began taking shape, Swenson said he has had numerous offers to do other construction projects elsewhere in Maine and out of state, all of which he's turned down. He said the only place he wants to build is downtown Old Orchard Beach, helping to remake his hometown.
Someday when his work is done, Swenson said he can envision just what downtown Old Orchard Beach will look like and how he'll enjoy it.
"I want to walk down Old Orchard Street and have it new from top to bottom," he said. "I'll walk out to the end of the pier, grab a fishing pole, and just sit there."
Staff Writer Seth Harkness can be contacted at 282-8225 or at:
By SETH HARKNESS, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright ? 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
E-mail this story to a friend
Also on this page:
Reader Comments
ADVERTISEMENT
Staff photo by Derek Davis
Staff photo by Derek Davis
Tim Swenson works at Acorn Village, 32 condominiums that are among several projects he is developing in Old Orchard Beach. He's proposing two projects to transform downtown.
DEVELOPER'S PROJECTS
These are Tim Swenson's Old Orchard Beach construction projects:
2001 - 12 houses in Dunegrass, Dunegrass Golf Course
2002-2002 - 32-unit Fairway Pond condominium project, Dunegrass Golf Course
2003-2004 - 24-unit Surfside condominium project, East Grand Avenue
2005-2006 - 32-unit Acorn Village condominium project on Walnut Street
2005-2007 - 67-unit Grand Victorian on Old Orchard Street
2006 - Four-unit Surfside II condominium project, East Grand Avenue
To top of story
OLD ORCHARD BEACH ? The developer most responsible for the wave of gentrification sweeping through downtown Old Orchard Beach is unlikely to be mistaken for one of the buyers of the $500,000 condominiums he's building. A lifetime resident of Old Orchard Beach, Tim Swenson comes from the sort of working-class family that has been the mainstay of this town's year-round and tourist population for generations. Both his father and grandfather were builders.
At the site of Grand Victorian, the $20 million condominium and retail project he expects to finish early next year, Swenson wears boots and jeans and hops in and out of a bulldozer, blending easily with the rest of his construction crew.
Some have expressed concerns that Swenson's project may leave little room for the town's traditional blue-collar clientele. Others describe the developer as a visionary in a hard hat.
Almost everyone agrees Swenson is ambitious and is playing a leading role in the redevelopment of Old Orchard Beach. In Swenson's mind, this is mostly a matter of timing and fate. "Old Orchard Beach is ready for a change and I'm just the guy who I guess was chosen to go forward," he said.
With the Grand Victorian nearing completion, the 41-year-old developer with bristly gray hair is drawing up plans for another $50 million of construction within blocks of the condominium complex. Though it's all preliminary, he is proposing two projects that would transform the downtown of this resort community. Swenson wants to build an eight-story hotel with an attached parking garage straddling the train tracks as well as a pair of piers next to the iconic, if slightly dilapidated, pier at the foot of Old Orchard Street.
Both projects stand little chance of happening without public support. As with the Grand Victorian, Swenson would need a zoning variance because of the hotel's height. He is also seeking to buy a piece of town-owned land to build the hotel. Voters will decide if they want to sell the property through a referendum on the November ballot.
Regardless of the vote's outcome, it is somewhat remarkable that a project of this sort is under discussion. Just five years ago, few people would have imagined something like this being built in downtown Old Orchard Beach, an area that had seen no significant construction in decades.
MAKING BELIEVERS OF MANY
Since then, some say Swenson's apparent success with the the Grand Victorian - all but 10 of the project's 67 condos are sold - has expanded many people's notions of the town's potential.
"He's converted a lot of people townwide," said Town Councilor Jim Long. "People thought it would never happen, couldn't be done."
Others offered a more tepid assessment of the project, saying it is destroying the essential character of a place which has long derived its charm from its rough edges and affordability.
"The community got along fine with old bars and people feeling comfortable here and people coming to have a cheap vacation on one of the most beautiful beaches on the planet," said Alan Dvorkis, a professional gambler who has split his time between Las Vegas and Old Orchard for more than 20 years.
Dvorkis said he sees no need to make Old Orchard Beach "an Ogunquit-type place." These sort of changes, he said, will only drive up taxes and drive out lower-income residents and visitors.
But other longtime residents, such as former town manager Jerry Plante, maintain gentrification will benefit people with lower incomes by increasing the tax base and funneling money into the town's schools and infrastructure. "Working people will appreciate the changes as well," he said. "We won't be able to live on the shore front, I admit that, but we will still be able to live here."
CONSTRUCTION'S IN HIS BLOOD
In many ways, Swenson's career has mirrored the fortunes of his hometown. He grew up around construction sites, working with his grandfather, John Girard, a carpenter and contractor who built many of the hotels in Old Orchard Beach.
As a teenager, he stocked prizes and ran carnival games at Village Park, a maze of kiosks and games the size of a city block.
Twenty-five years later he would buy the property at the foot of Old Orchard Street from his former employers and level it to make room for the Grand Victorian.
Swenson's own father, a finish carpenter who worked for his grandfather, died in a car accident when Swenson was 3 years old. His mother never remarried, raising five boys and a girl on Social Security payments.
After graduating from Old Orchard Beach High School in 1983, Swenson went away to college for a year. When he came home, he started doing construction work with one of his uncles and later began his own excavation business. He owned a bar for three years, the Dugout, where draft beer sold for 25 cents on Thursday nights. He built a few condominium projects around town, but nothing on the scale of what he's doing today.
Things began to change, he said, when he got married five years ago.
"That's when my wife, Victoria, came and straightened out the ship," he said. "Until I got married, things didn't really start to click."
The couple work closely as a team. She runs the office out of their home and handles all the finances and billing. He makes the deals and oversees construction. "He's the dreamer. I'm the organizer," said Victoria, originally from Florida, for whom the Grand Victorian is named.
METHODS IMPRESS TOWN MANAGER
Town Manager Jim Thomas said he has been impressed with Swenson's ability to get people to subscribe to his dreams. With the hotel project, for instance, the town manager said he anticipated Swenson was in for a litigious, protracted negotiation with Pan Am Railways, formerly known as Guilford Rail System, to obtain air rights over the train tracks. Instead, Swenson asked to leave all the lawyers behind and met directly with officials from the railroad. Within three months, he had an option to buy the air rights.
"I'm surprised it went as quickly as it did," Thomas said. "Tim had an idea and Guilford bought into it."
Thomas said that he does have some reservations about the way Swenson does business. He said he is concerned that Swenson's exuberance occasionally gets the best of him. In his view, for instance, Swenson should have waited to announce the hotel project until his plans were more sharply focused. This way there would be less chance of confusing the voters whose support he needs, Thomas said.
The town manager said he is also concerned that Swenson works on a narrow profit margin that leaves little room for error. "Sometimes I think people try to take advantage of him. The prices he's paid for property have been on the high end," he said.
STAYING CLOSE TO HOME
Swenson said he tries to deliver the best product for the lowest price and he said this does mean his profits are lower than many people might think. He declined to say what he expected to make on the Grand Victorian but said it was a small fraction of the project's cost.
"I'm making more money than I ever made, but still not as much as everybody thinks," he said.
Since the Grand Victorian began taking shape, Swenson said he has had numerous offers to do other construction projects elsewhere in Maine and out of state, all of which he's turned down. He said the only place he wants to build is downtown Old Orchard Beach, helping to remake his hometown.
Someday when his work is done, Swenson said he can envision just what downtown Old Orchard Beach will look like and how he'll enjoy it.
"I want to walk down Old Orchard Street and have it new from top to bottom," he said. "I'll walk out to the end of the pier, grab a fishing pole, and just sit there."
Staff Writer Seth Harkness can be contacted at 282-8225 or at:
grittys457
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The side street next to Old Port Sea Grill has been blocked off and they are ready to begin construction of Custom House addition. I really like the look of all that glass.
P
Patrick
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yeah i read in the paper (business section) a while bach they were building that sometime this summer. that glass is definitely nice. 6 floors?
i drove by walker terrace tonight, looks real nice, as if it has been there for a century....fits its surroundings like whoa
i had to.
i also drove by kimball court and it looks like people might have already started living on the top two floors, but the ground level is still under construction. there were lights on and plants in the top floors that i could see at around 10PM tuesday, august 21.
also, chestnut street condos have three floors worth of steel framing up, after months of not really changing much, which is very cool.it will be a very dense development, but i wouldnt want to live there, with PHS, chestnut street weirdos, and everything eles going on there.
the whole foods market sucks, why did it have to be so sprawling?
i drove by walker terrace tonight, looks real nice, as if it has been there for a century....fits its surroundings like whoa
i had to.i also drove by kimball court and it looks like people might have already started living on the top two floors, but the ground level is still under construction. there were lights on and plants in the top floors that i could see at around 10PM tuesday, august 21.
also, chestnut street condos have three floors worth of steel framing up, after months of not really changing much, which is very cool.it will be a very dense development, but i wouldnt want to live there, with PHS, chestnut street weirdos, and everything eles going on there.
the whole foods market sucks, why did it have to be so sprawling?
grittys457
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That is small for a Whole Foods. In my Best of Boston mag, they say Whole Foods is the best place to get a sandwich. Guess the deli in there is unreal. Think it will look great once all lit up.
My friends, the dirty fucking dirtfucks, have already etched out and ruined one of the new panels on Kimball Court. Says "The new ugliest building in Portland". Man, why can't I ever catch them.
My friends, the dirty fucking dirtfucks, have already etched out and ruined one of the new panels on Kimball Court. Says "The new ugliest building in Portland". Man, why can't I ever catch them.
P
Patrick
Guest
that is so screw bally. why would someone do that? its not even possible to make a statement with that sort of thing, cause the building is replacing a dormant vacant crappy run down boarded up crap hole, and it is beautiful. Man i would shanghai those rejects if i saw that.
B
BostonSkyGuy
Guest
grittys457 said:
HAHAHA! I'm sorry but I was reading this thread and saw that. I laughed out loud. Not at the building being vandalized but by Gritty's comments and then Patrick:
Patrick said:
Oh man..I'm dying. Thanks for the unintentional comedy guys.
B
BostonSkyGuy
Guest
Double Post.
P
Patrick
Guest
BostonSkyGuy said:
no sweat, unintentional comedy is grittys' true calling. 8)
Whole Foods
On the topic of Whole Foods, down here in DC it's by far the best grocery store to buy food. The main drawback is it's always full of yuppies and vegans, and it is more expensive than everywhere else, but most of the other grocery stores in DC are a bit on the dingy side. Whole Foods is always uber clean and uber fresh.
It was the same way in NYC, everyone shopped at Whole Foods and waited in line for 30 minutes to check out because the food was so damn good. The great thing about having one in Portland is that you'll get all the great food without the wait. I think their design does suck a bit though, and it's unfortunate that they couldn't have made the building more compact and done perhaps a parking garage rather than surface parking. But alas, people in Maine are used to their big grocery stores with their wide isles and big carts, when I first moved to NYC the tiny grocery store isles were the biggest adjustment...
On the topic of Whole Foods, down here in DC it's by far the best grocery store to buy food. The main drawback is it's always full of yuppies and vegans, and it is more expensive than everywhere else, but most of the other grocery stores in DC are a bit on the dingy side. Whole Foods is always uber clean and uber fresh.
It was the same way in NYC, everyone shopped at Whole Foods and waited in line for 30 minutes to check out because the food was so damn good. The great thing about having one in Portland is that you'll get all the great food without the wait. I think their design does suck a bit though, and it's unfortunate that they couldn't have made the building more compact and done perhaps a parking garage rather than surface parking. But alas, people in Maine are used to their big grocery stores with their wide isles and big carts, when I first moved to NYC the tiny grocery store isles were the biggest adjustment...
grittys457
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portlandneedsnewarena
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I am told that the "Westin" Condo/Hotel project is all but dead and that the property is up for sale. What a bummer, I used to think that project was a sure thing.Patrick said:
grittys457
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That does suck. When it all comes down, I am glad that the project that will(hopefully) be going forward is the Longfellow/Riverwalk project. That was by far my favorite. That goes to final vote next week.
I'm sure someone will plan something for that site there. Still prime stuff. I don't see why Baldacci's brother doesn't go and build a hotel there. He's part of the group that wants to build one on the pier. That would be so expensive for them to fix the pier, I don't see why they would just take this spot. In fact, just mimic the Westin's plans so you can get the project done fast.
Whoever planned Chestnut St. Condos should be in charge of all future projects in Portland. They have the entire frame up now. They did not mess around.
I'm sure someone will plan something for that site there. Still prime stuff. I don't see why Baldacci's brother doesn't go and build a hotel there. He's part of the group that wants to build one on the pier. That would be so expensive for them to fix the pier, I don't see why they would just take this spot. In fact, just mimic the Westin's plans so you can get the project done fast.
Whoever planned Chestnut St. Condos should be in charge of all future projects in Portland. They have the entire frame up now. They did not mess around.
grittys457
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This garage project seems better than most of the building proposals around here...
http://www.theforecaster.net/story.php?storyid=7533
http://www.theforecaster.net/story.php?storyid=7533
grittys457
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Went to the new Public Market yesterday. It really sucked. What a cramped shitty space. Bad bad set up. Hope they can do more with it.