Portland, ME - New Construction Continued

I'm pretty sure that's a requirement of the form-based code zone which was adopted for this area not long ago. It was sort of pushed on the city by a guy named Hugh Nazor, who was a transplant from Arizona (or somewhere like that) and has since moved away from the City. Apparently, Nazor was involved in form-based zoning out west, and thought it would be a good idea here. I remember the impetus for this arose from projects like the Bay House (which was taller as originally proposed, and as it just so happens also blocked Nazor's then-view from the Federal Street row houses). Anyway, not to discredit the city, which operates in a political context and thus must pay attention to the squeakiest wheel, but I don't think anyone at the time in city hall was really qualified to adopt a code like this and I would even go as far as to say most consultants who are involved from the private sector are just biased/brain washed new urbanists without any real sense of what's practical in a development sense. What you end up with are these sorts of requirements for retail which (as the ocean gateway garage and Maine Med garage show) often sit empty. The result is that you have carrying costs for the physical space without any offsetting income generation, so you have to recoup the costs by passing them onto consumers in the form of higher residential unit prices (or not build the project at all). Or, you end up with some sort of strange community space in the retail shells, where it's basically a subsidized or free use of the space just to make it looked lived in. That hardly ever fits with a high end residential structure, but oh well. Too many cities think form-based codes will in themselves be the magic fix for their urban design issues.
 
A few recent-ish shots from January around the India Street / New Port area:

CPort Building & Mason Block
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Luminato
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AC Hotel / Marriott
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AC Hotel and WEX
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Other side of Hotel, with Parking Garage updates:
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20 Thames
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Portlander's "New Port" is killin' it right now with all of this new construction! I really need to drive up from York County to check all of this out. Thanks for the update Corey.
 
The New Port is going to thrust Portland into a new economic stratosphere. If Boston is the New England version of LA then Portland is becoming 'lil San Fran/Seattle
 
The WEX building has come along quite a bit since Corey's photo; you can see the curve at the corner now and it's starting to head east.
 
NewHeight Group sent out a brief update with a bit more information on the design of "Verdante" Condors:

http://bit.ly/2FKDKDy

Still no renderings. Interesting to learn they are proposing a "small park" at the SE corner of Congress and Franklin. I'm assuming this would be a private park for residents, but I'm having a hard time envisioning it. There's a small patch of open space at that corner, but I didn't think the property line would extend all the way over there. Also hard to envision a park adjacent to this intersection being very relaxing...
 
The name is kind of lame also, maybe "Verdante at Franklin" might be a better fit. It's kind of diagonal and across four lanes from Lincoln Park. Wonder if they're going to demolish the one story purple/white structure to make room for "their" park?
 
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Portlander said:
The name is kind of lame also, maybe "Verdante at Franklin" might be a better fit. It's kind of diagonal and across four lanes from Lincoln Park. Wonder if they're going to demolish the one story purple/white structure to make room for "their" park?
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I totally agree regarding the naming. It's almost embarrassing at that point; however, to the developer's credit, it's what the market is asking for, as it works, so props to them. It's just that, as a long time Portlander myself, I can't help but think that many people who made this city what it is would laugh at the name -- whatever it means. Edit, I just looked it up, it means "tacky" in Italian. Actually, it means countryside, which is a little more than slightly strange.

Also, I like the purple/white brick yarn store (or whatever it is these days); I think it gives that area character. That said, I don't imagine it's the highest and best use of the site so, like the Portland Lobster Co., I can understand getting rid of it. But at some point the coolness of Portland begins to be replaced by out of touch lackluster projects. It would be ideal to keep the old and introduce the new, rather than displacing everything that makes the City special -- I guess that's what Bayside would have been for had the City been able to actually capitalize on its potential (arena...).
 
Just a thought. I think it would be cool to pick a day this spring once the weather warms up to meet interested individuals on this site. Maybe we could all get together on a Saturday around noon at Monument Square, have an inexpensive lunch and take a walking tour of downtown. Everyone sharing their knowledge and history of Portland and checking out all of the new construction sites would be fun.

Had the pleasure of meeting PortlandArch (my man!) numerous times, along with Corey and SHAZBAT73 on other occasions in the past. We all share a common passion for Portland and it would be nice to put faces and personalities with the active posters here. You may even make some new friends. Let me know if there is any interest?
 
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The rendering from the article


Looks extremely similar to Luminato, and that's not a bad thing. I like the design. The two buildings combined definitely help Franklin St. feel more urban.
 
Would prefer to have the north end of the building flush with Congress Street to maintain the street wall and maybe the small park could have been placed in between the two new structures. But it looks nice overall and will add some life to that corner and may even finally encourage some development at the Top of the Old Port parking wasteland.
 
Something else to keep an eye on:

Vets First Choice plans to build a $20 million headquarters somewhere on the peninsula.

Vets First Choice plans a corporate facility on the peninsula in Portland, according to MTI. The site, the location of which has not been identified, will include an automated fulfillment center, state-of-the-art specialty pharmacy, and a world-class science, technology, engineering and math center.
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Full article from MaineBiz: http://www.mainebiz.biz/article/20180206/NEWS01/180209969
 
Max said:
Very exciting, though based on the description (fulfillment center, etc.) and budget it seems unlikely to manifest itself as a substantial office tower.
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I agree, almost sounds suburban. Maybe their definition of "on peninsula" extends out to that nearly empty technology park out by exit 47 :p :p

Realistically though, the peninsula is running out of locations for a substantial corporate / office facility. Maybe somewhere in Bayside? If it's going to have a fulfillment center I would imagine they'll want it somewhere close to 95 or 295

MaineBiz also has a pretty comprehensive overview of current developments:

http://www.mainebiz.biz/article/2018...301319995/1092
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it's good to see that 58 Fore St. is getting ready to kick off. I hope we start to see some construction this summer.
 
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Has the 7 story office building across from the parking garage started its foundation? The reason I ask is I noticed leasing info for this online and it stated it has broken ground. Perhaps some of this space going to Vets First Choice? And it looks like the parking garage is creating 5 floors of interesting, narrow, curved office space. When that is done along with the 7 story across the street, it will create quite the dynamic area of all new office space, hotel, restaurant on the waterfront. I think you will see a lot more interest from businesses to locate here. Why not? You can be in a high tech corridor and still be in Maine with its recreational options. A big draw for new hires.
 
TC_zoid said:
Has the 7 story office building across from the parking garage started its foundation? The reason I ask is I noticed leasing info for this online and it stated it has broken ground.
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Not to my knowlege. In fact, I don't even think it's gone through the planning process. The impression I got from the MaineBiz article is that Vets First Choice plans to build a standalone structure.
 
Portlander said:
Just a thought. I think it would be cool to pick a day this spring once the weather warms up to meet interested individuals on this site. Maybe we could all get together on a Saturday around noon at Monument Square, have an inexpensive lunch and take a walking tour of downtown. Everyone sharing their knowledge and history of Portland and checking out all of the new construction sites would be fun.

Had the pleasure of meeting PortlandArch (my man!) numerous times, along with Corey and SHAZBAT73 on other occasions in the past. We all share a common passion for Portland and it would be nice to put faces and personalities with the active posters here. You may even make some new friends. Let me know if there is any interest?
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Always a good time running into you on the streets of Portland, planned or unplanned! The most knowledgeable person I've met on Portland, ever!
 
Cosakita18 said:
I agree, almost sounds suburban. Maybe their definition of "on peninsula" extends out to that nearly empty technology park out by exit 47 :p :p

Realistically though, the peninsula is running out of locations for a substantial corporate / office facility. Maybe somewhere in Bayside? If it's going to have a fulfillment center I would imagine they'll want it somewhere close to 95 or 295



it's good to see that 58 Fore St. is getting ready to kick off. I hope we start to see some construction this summer.
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Thompson's Point? For some reason, I routinely hear people refer to that as on the peninsula.
 
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