Rock Row (née The Ridge, née Dirigo Plaza) | Westbrook, ME

The site plan docs for the medical offices (and retail/restaurant block that will go roughly where the stage is now) are on the Westbrook city website (PDF warning). These typically only last until the Planning Board meeting, in this case March 1.
 
Saw a lot of action from I-95 today at the future site of what I believe will be the Medical Center at Rock Row? Good to see this. This is scheduled to be finished early next year right? Any timeline on the beer hall and residential side of things?
 

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Rock Row is presenting at tonight's (6/28) Portland Planning Board hearing to discuss subdividing parcels in the southern portion of the project (everything south of the Railroad) .

The packet includes some updated parcel and street plans, as well as anticipated residential phasing.

I'm a bit worried this project is slowly becoming less "mixed use neighborhood" and more "suburban sprawl with a few multistory buildings and apartments"

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Yup, the location of those apartments was the planned location of the convention center/convertible amphitheater. Seems to me they're phoning in the rest of this development.

250 units in something that size can't be more than a 4-5 stories tall. What a waste of space and opportunity.
 
Rock Row hasn't released an "official" master plan or rendering in quite a while. If I'm not mistaken, the convention center / hotel, CLT office building and some residential are going in the "Phase 2" parcel.
 
Here's the image that's on their website. The residences have indeed moved onto the convention center spot; hopefully someone will ask the question tonight. CLT tower, all the cool stuff and (hopefully) the movie theater remain in the Phase 2 area (currently the parking lot).
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Also, the last time I looked, Waterfront hadn't dismantled their stage yet (it's where the retail/restaurant building near the cancer center will go). I assume that's on them to take care of, anyway.
 
Upon further review, I wonder if this switch may have been made to ensure the amphitheater isn't too close to the Portland city limit.
 
markhb said:
Also, the last time I looked, Waterfront hadn't dismantled their stage yet (it's where the retail/restaurant building near the cancer center will go). I assume that's on them to take care of, anyway.
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I believe the stage is actually where these newer Phase 3 residential units will sit. That tree line between Phase 4 and Phase 3 is also a brook that runs behind the stage.
 
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DanielPWM19 said:
Are they subdividing to sell off the parcels to other developers?
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I'm wondering if it's to spread risk? Maybe something on the finance side? Taxes? There were two applicants for this subdivision application: Dirigo Center Developers, LLC and Waterstone Rock Row Medical Campus, LLC both are owned by Waterstone Properties Group. Anyone know why they might be doing this?

From the talk at the meeting it seems like the "seasonal event space" (I believe P2 L7) is tabled for the foreseeable future. They also said that the residential portion (I don't think they mentioned the medical) is about a year off from breaking ground.
 
nomc said:
I'm wondering if it's to spread risk? Maybe something on the finance side? Taxes? There were two applicants for this subdivision application: Dirigo Center Developers, LLC and Waterstone Rock Row Medical Campus, LLC both are owned by Waterstone Properties Group. Anyone know why they might be doing this?

From the talk at the meeting it seems like the "seasonal event space" (I believe P2 L7) is tabled for the foreseeable future. They also said that the residential portion (I don't think they mentioned the medical) is about a year off from breaking ground.
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None of this includes the additional land they acquired on the other side of the highway right? Just holding the land for future?
 
I'm guessing the separate LLC's are finance-related, making the investments individual pure-plays as opposed to a big giant blob.
Dr. StrangeHat said:
I believe the stage is actually where these newer Phase 3 residential units will sit. That tree line between Phase 4 and Phase 3 is also a brook that runs behind the stage.
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You're right. :)
 
markhb said:
Here's the image that's on their website. The residences have indeed moved onto the convention center spot; hopefully someone will ask the question tonight. CLT tower, all the cool stuff and (hopefully) the movie theater remain in the Phase 2 area (currently the parking lot).
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Also, the last time I looked, Waterfront hadn't dismantled their stage yet (it's where the retail/restaurant building near the cancer center will go). I assume that's on them to take care of, anyway.
Click to expand...
Also, they’ve been allowed to abandon the walkable “street” / north-south axis in the original “sales pitch” deck. Without that this is just another jumble of access arteries and sprawling parking lots with randomly placed big boxes scattered around. The City should be holding them to the approved plan. The site would have benefitted from a form-based code — then build whatever retail/residential/parking clients need but at least it would have resulted in a consistency with the “bill of sale.”
As this comes to life it’s just a monster — what a lost opportunity for the region.
 
They definitely seem to have overrun the retail section to the south of the railroad (the "Metro transit hub" and the buildings immediately below it in the pic I posted). Pretty much all the cool stuff from the website has always been crammed into the Phase 2 area, though.
 
From an urbanism perspective, the proposed layout of Phase 3/4 really isn't great. I don't understand the obsession with twisting streets that meet at strange angles, it just creates weirdly-shaped superblocks that have big dead-zones between buildings and streets. Only good for the kind of car-dependent "Texas donut" style apartment blocks we see here.

These streets clearly haven't been designed with transit vehicles in mind, on top of that, There are only partial sidewalks and no visible bike infrastructure.

In regards to the convention center, I sadly wouldn't be surprised if they end up scaling-down the hotel to be a 6-8 story building. Much more in line with everything else in Rock Row.
I also really do hope they revisit the partial "outdoor amphitheater" It's really not a great idea given the proximity to residential and healthcare facilities (Personally, if I was an inpatient being treated for cancer, I wouldn't be in the mood to listen to Cardi-B or Tim McGraw late into the night)
Although I'm not an acoustic engineer, maybe the design of the amphitheater contains the sound well enough that it wouldn't be an issue.
 
Lots of promises, Big Dreams, Fancy presentations, then lots of changes...in the end, just another strip mall. This reminds me of the the episode on the Smpsons. Build the Monorail.........he told us...it would revolutionize Springfield. guess what they all were suckered out of money and their dreams... Lyle Landly....Westbrook Monorail.....Monorail...Monorail.....LOL six car monorail....
 
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