Portland

RIP....
The Igloo

Guess it's back to Strickly Culture for you Patrick. Did I call that or did I call that?[/img]
 
The time in my computer is 7:27, at 7:16 tonight, just minutes ago, I was leaving the eastern promenade and driving out od downtown via congress street. As I was glancing over to check the status of Kimball Court, I too noticed the Igloo was closed, and it is scary because the first thing that popped into my mind was you, grittys. very weird feeling, haha. but yeah, you were right on the money. Seng Thai House, farther down on congress, sorta by st johns, also closed. It was a decent restaurant, believe it or not. Strictly culture has also closed, but they will be openning back up on marginal way (go bayside!). There is a new store in the mall, ten times worse than the igloo, called "forever young." it is a store straight out of OOB, for real, with maine sweatshirts and shirts with flames on the sides and logos printed on plain white tees. it is hilarious, you can hear the air con rattling in the ceiling, the music plays from a boom box on the counter, and the paint on the wall is chipping. its across from american eagle, i bet it wont even last til september!
 
New arena outside my window?


This Center Street pub could be a Fore Street pub, or a pile of bricks, in the next year or so. (photos/Chris Busby)


Big plans brewing around Brian Bor?
Scarborough developer buys lot across from Civic Center

By Chris Busby

A Scarborough developer is squeezing the Portland Irish pub Brian Bor? ? literally. Developer Kerry Anderson recently purchased the lot surrounding Brian Bor?, a sizeable parcel in the middle of town bounded by Spring, Center, Fore and Cotton streets.

Bor? co-owner Laurence Kelly said Anderson demanded he move the fence that encloses a small patio a few feet north, effectively shrinking the patio, because it was encroaching on his property line. Kelly and two other partners own both the century-old building and the land it occupies, but the surrounding lot is Anderson's, including buildings occupied by the cocktail lounge Una, Portland Pie, the sports bar and restaurant Rivalries, and several offices.

Kelly said Anderson has spoken of developing a large "complex" on the lot, potentially comprised of a hotel, condominiums, retail shops, offices or some combination thereof. There's also been discussion of a convention center, said Kelly, and interest from members of the Cumberland County Civic Center Board of Trustees. The Civic Center is diagonally across the intersection of Spring and Center streets from Anderson's lot.



Board Vice Chairman Neal Pratt, a Portland attorney and neighbor of Anderson's in Scarborough, said he and fellow board member Fred Forsley have discussed the possibility of a development on Anderson's lot that could compliment the publicly owned Civic Center.

"I haven't spoken to Kerry personally about this," said Pratt. "Fred and I talked about it at one point as one of a hundred different possible ways to improve the Civic Center experience and enhance the economy generally."

That improvement, in theory, could take the form of a new or "expanded" civic center, Pratt said.

Anderson declined to discuss his plans for the property on the phone, and said he may be willing to discuss them with this reporter in person sometime early next month, depending on his impression of this article.

Forsley did not return calls seeking comment. [For more on Forsley's recent development interests, click here.]

The possibility Anderson's recently acquired property could be linked to the Civic Center has not yet been a topic of discussion on the Civic Center board, Chairman Dale Olmstead said last week. Olmstead said the board supports the construction of a new civic center, and is currently "looking into various funding options to make that happen." [The board is also considering selling the name of the 30-year-old facility to help cover ongoing improvement costs; read that Brief here.]

Kelly said Anderson and "a lot of different players" are in an early stage of discussions about the property's future, and doesn't expect Anderson to break ground for a couple years. Nevertheless, he points out bitterly, the fence and a kitchen exhaust pipe had to be moved this summer. A metal parking barrier along Center Street has already been extended to the foreshortened patio's edge. Kelly said the fence was rebuilt a foot farther in than necessary to allow room to walk along its outer edge without "trespassing" on Anderson's property.




Two years ago, Anderson partnered with a Boston-based company to begin development of Scarborough Gallery, a 630,000-square-foot project currently under construction just south of the juncture of Interstates 295 and 95. The project will include a Wal-Mart Supercenter, a Lowe's home improvement store and other retail businesses and restaurants. Anderson also recently developed a 222-unit housing project in Scarborough.

In Portland, Anderson has partnered with real estate broker Tom Moulton to develop the building on the corner of Congress and Oak streets. The new bar and cocktail lounge The White Heart currently occupies the ground floor of that building, as does the office of Portland's Downtown District. Several condominiums are being built on the floors above.

Kelly said he and his partners have talked with Anderson about Bor?'s future, given the large-scale developments being considered for the site. Anderson "wanted to buy us out and destroy the building," Kelly said, but he and his partners have resisted, offering to sell the pub for a "ridiculous price" as much as 10 times what the land and building are valued.

A compromise option could involve wrapping the brick building, raising it, and sliding it on rails down to a pre-built foundation on Fore Street, next to Portland Pie, said Kelly. However, it's not yet clear whether that option is either technically feasible or acceptable to Anderson.


Chris Busby is editor and publisher of The Bollard. He can be reached at editor@thebollard.com.
 
VERY interesting, I've always felt that lot was the biggest piece of real estate on the peninsula ripe for development. Busby is breaking some great stories, he's come a long way since the CBW days!
 
Speaking of governors, who's favored to win the ME gov's race?

Baldacci seeks to highlight favorable Census findings on income
By FRANCIS X. QUINN Associated Press Writer


AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) ? Gov. John Baldacci on Wednesday updated a re-election campaign claim that his economic plan is working by citing new Census Bureau data that, to the initial puzzlement of economic analysts within and outside his administration, showed Maine's median household income growing by 5.5 percent from 2004 to 2005.

"The U.S. Census numbers show that many people in Maine are finding opportunities to work and increase their earnings," Baldacci said.

On Tuesday, as the Census Bureau released its findings, several administration officials said they were taken by surprise.

State Economist Catherine Reilly said the reported jump in median household income presented "a different picture than we've seen from other data."

Another expert, Professor Charles Colgan of the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine who serves as chairman of the Consensus Economic Forecasting Commission, said at first blush he would question "that big a change in that short a time period."

Calling the growth finding "unusual," Colgan added, "it's not what you would expect given overall growth in the economy for that period."

Not long ago, a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that "New England's northernmost state did little but tread water in 2005, as 2004's mild growth came to a standstill."

It cited "lackluster" employment measures, "tepid" income growth, a cooling housing sector and a decline in the value of merchandise exports.

"Maine's recovery seems to have stalled," the report said, adding that, "In fact, Maine was the only state in the country to see a decline over this period, except for Louisiana."

Ed Welniak, chief of the income surveys branch of the Census Bureau, said Wednesday the new report's findings put Maine among seven states showing an increase, and that statistically none of the state increases could be said to be larger than another.

Baldacci said Wednesday his economic plan includes "investing in higher education, expanding research and development; expanding the reach of investments and incentives; enhancing renewable and alternative energy sources; and continuing tax relief efforts."
 
okay well I can tell you why salaries (and therefore income, obviously) have risen in the recent past....its not because of economic development, it is because the workforce is leaving, especially young people, and businesses have to offer higher wages, and dip into their surplus earnings, just to keep people from leaving the state, or to competitively higher the small workforce that remains (less people means businesses have to offer higher wages to compete with each other for workers). other than that I cant imagine a large economic hike in the state, it sucks here, get baldacci outta there damnit. maine really should be split into two states, because southern maine carries northern maine, and portland carries southern maine. i bet if the data were assessed on a split state basis the findings would show a very healthy southern part and a very poor northern part....northern maine is completely down in the dumps, while southern maine continues to thrive...i imagine it is the same with NH only it is a smaller state so the data wouldnt be as skewed.
 
Just to add on to what Patrick said I heard that one of the reasons why Mainers' incomes are rising is because this state has a very high percentage of people who work more than one job in order to make ends meet since high paying employers are trying to excape this state's anti-business policies. Also, i don't live in NH but it appears they're creating jobs much faster than Maine and offsetting many of their manufacturing job losses while Maine continues to go down the economic loo year after year and Baldacci gives more laptops with explosive batteries to middle school kids while at the same time finding ways to give tax money to every lobbyist group (that benefits only a select few). But at the same time all that money could have gone toward higher education and R&D without driving up costs to the taxpayers too much. Kind of ironic that the guy mentions tax relief![/i][/b]
 
S-Roll said:
Just to add on to what Patrick said I heard that one of the reasons why Mainers' incomes are rising is because this state has a very high percentage of people who work more than one job in order to make ends meet since high paying employers are trying to excape this state's anti-business policies. Also, i don't live in NH but it appears they're creating jobs much faster than Maine and offsetting many of their manufacturing job losses while Maine continues to go down the economic loo year after year and Baldacci gives more laptops with explosive batteries to middle school kids while at the same time finding ways to give tax money to every lobbyist group (that benefits only a select few). But at the same time all that money could have gone toward higher education and R&D without driving up costs to the taxpayers too much. Kind of ironic that the guy mentions tax relief![/i][/b]
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well said, all of it.
 
Is Baldacci going to win again, most likely? Is he popular up there?
 
That's like asking if Teddy Kennedey is popular in Mass and if he will win again.
 
dont know what the polls say, but incumbants usually have the advantage.....however, things in maine are so BAD economically that it works almost in reverse here: hate on whoever is in office....dont know....
 
grittys457 said:
That's like asking if Teddy Kennedey is popular in Mass and if he will win again.
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Come on, Maine can't be that liberal. I always thought of maine as nh-ish politically, kind of in the middle.
 
Patrick said:
dont know what the polls say, but incumbants usually have the advantage.....however, things in maine are so BAD economically that it works almost in reverse here: hate on whoever is in office....dont know....
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Unfortunately, Baldacci will win fairly easy. So that means no Lincoln Square project (Civic Center/Convention Ctr./Off. Bldg./Hotel) for at least another 4 + years. Baldacci has done very little for the State in his first 4 years in office, but unfortunately most people don't get that.
 
I'm not a fan of Baldacci but I'd rather have a lousy democrat in office than a lousy republican. Just my two cents. :wink:
 
Corey said:
I'm not a fan of Baldacci but I'd rather have a lousy democrat in office than a lousy republican. Just my two cents. :wink:
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Well, you have seen waht a lousy Democrat has done, a lousy Republican couldn't do much worse and I am sure would be much more in tune w/ economic development than Baldacci is.
 
I wasn't using Ted to bash on democrats, at least not this time. More to say how once someone is in there, it is hard to get them out.

Mitt Romney, financially speaking, would probably do wonders for Maine.
 
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