Portland, ME - New Construction Continued

Thanks for the info Patrick. I was reading about the law school / professional school consolidation and wondering whether they would look to build a new building on the USM campus or downtown. As you say, downtown near the courts and City Hall would make more sense.
 
^ When Archetype updated their website, this rendering also jumped out at me. But some digging revealed that it is indeed a spec rendering, meant to show the development possibilities of the site, not an actual proposal.

I hadn't noticed the "law school" part in the URL, though – that's interesting, and suggests that Calcoulidis was trying to pitch a development concept to USM ("Grand Metro Builders" is also the name of Calcoulidis's company).

There have also been spec proposals to locate a new graduate school on West Commercial Street on J.B. Brown's land. I think that this is one of those:

http://www.wintonscott.com/Site/WWD_1.html

...and way back in 2008 some of the prospective developers of the midtown empty lots had proposed locating a USM graduate school there:

http://rightsofway.blogspot.com/2008/02/bayside-update.html
 
Portcity75 said:
http://m.mainebiz.biz/article/20161102/NEWS0101/161109991
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This is a great idea for Portland!

* Portland has added hundreds of hotel rooms over the past decade.

* Portland's transportation infrastructure (Jetport, Amtrak, Waterfront) has been vastly improved.

* Portland has become a destination city which has added dozens of restaurants, breweries, shops and attractions.

I think that Portland could have a HUGE convention business for about 8-9 months out of the year.
 
RE a new convention center, it would be best over the expansive parking lot diagonally opposite the civic center. the reason is that this area is closer to existing hotels and could use the facilities of the civic center with a sky bridge. the existing parking lot can still be used and perhaps more levels could be added below ground. nothing beats heated underground parking when coming to Portland in January! if the lots are already being considered for other structures, no problem, then add them above. this is the only remaining wide swath of land left in the core business district. a convention center would not work as well in bayside as who wants to walk up a hill in the dead of winter? (or dead of summer too). bayside, for most middle-aged people, is not walkable to congress street (and forget the old port). and as much as people hate the civic center, read comments from out of state people and acts that perform there. they all love its central location to the old port.
 
TC_zoid said:
RE a new convention center, it would be best over the expansive parking lot diagonally opposite the civic center. the reason is that this area is closer to existing hotels and could use the facilities of the civic center with a sky bridge. the existing parking lot can still be used and perhaps more levels could be added below ground. nothing beats heated underground parking when coming to Portland in January! if the lots are already being considered for other structures, no problem, then add them above. this is the only remaining wide swath of land left in the core business district. a convention center would not work as well in bayside as who wants to walk up a hill in the dead of winter? (or dead of summer too). bayside, for most middle-aged people, is not walkable to congress street (and forget the old port). and as much as people hate the civic center, read comments from out of state people and acts that perform there. they all love its central location to the old port.
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I am hearing that an office building/parking garage is likely to be going in at the lot diagonally across from the Civic Center. The office building would be on top of the parking garage and a portion of the parking garage may have to be below the ground.
 
We all knew the building owners would build there due to insane price they paid. I've also recently heard they're gearing up for a tall office tower. No way they go under 16 floors I would think
 
I think that parcel is zoned for 135' which would allow the developer to go up to 12 floors including rooftop mechanical space. Personally, I'd be very happy with at least 10 floors after decades of looking at a vacant parking lot.
 
Always nice to stop by here and get an update on what's coming next. Perhaps someday soon I'll be able to take photos of new buildings in Bayside and the Portland Company redevelopment.

101 York St.
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Not sure what to call this. Corner of Thames and Hancock Streets:
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16 Middle Street
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667 Congress
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Luminato
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89 Anderson St. and Bayside Anchor
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Portlander said:
I think that parcel is zoned for 135' which would allow the developer to go up to 12 floors including rooftop mechanical space. Personally, I'd be very happy with at least 10 floors after decades of looking at a vacant parking lot.
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This is the 3 and 4 Portland Square lot folks are talking about, right? (Probably also the lot on the other side of Cotton St. that surrounds Brian Boru and Bleachers, with the assumption that Cotton would be discontinued.)
 
It is 3 and 4 Portland Square and the dirt lot across from Cotton Street is a different owner. My guess is that Cotton will eventually be reopened onto Spring Street to ease traffic issues especially if a parking garage is part of a potential development.
 
Corey said:
IrzXbB2.jpg
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What a great shot with that cruise ship in the background! I'm really glad that Gorham Savings Bank is investing in the Grand Trunk building with this renovation. The building has been in sad shape for quite some time and really deserves to be resurrected.
 
Portlander said:
I think that parcel is zoned for 135' which would allow the developer to go up to 12 floors including rooftop mechanical space. Personally, I'd be very happy with at least 10 floors after decades of looking at a vacant parking lot.
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Given that the City is entirely rewriting its comprehensive plan, and combining it into one document (which would leave other plans such as the Eastern Waterfront Master Plan, Bayside Vision Plan, and most notably the Downtown Vision Plan (and associated height study) as standalone documents and no longer part of the comp plan), I think there's real opportunity to see the zoning changed in this neighborhood. We may see a re-write of the zoning heights across the peninsula in the next year or so, but I would agree that 10 stories would be nice enough. Taller, even better.
 
^ The buyer of Rufus Deering was Reger Dasco, the developers of the Bay House and the new Newbury Street townhouses. That latter project just finished construction and people have started moving in.

And speaking of Reger Dasco, Port City Glass has been demolished to make way for their 62 India Street project, another 4-story mixed-user. That gives us four active construction sites within 500 feet of Duckfat in the India Street neighborhood.
 
cneal said:
That gives us four active construction sites within 500 feet of Duckfat in the India Street neighborhood.
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Now if we could only get Duckfat to lease the entire first floor of one of these projects perhaps there wouldn't always be a 45 minute wait!
 
Max said:
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.
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This was in the Press Herald a couple days ago.

I was looking at that site a couple weeks ago and thinking it was in need of some development, so I hope this works out.
 
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