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

There's a phenomenon in the field of evolutionary biology called "carcinization" which observes that, given enough time, a wide variety of crustaceans eventually evolve into a crab-like form.

We have something similar in Maine...Where every multi-phase development project ends up evolving into a cheap "pop up" beer garden.
 
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Cosakita18 said:
There's a phenomenon within evolutionary biology called "carcinization" which observes that, given enough time, a wide variety of crustaceans eventually evolve into a crab-like form.

We have something similar in Maine...Where every multi-phase development project ends up evolving into a cheap "pop up" beer garden.
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Reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's Good Omens, which posited that any cassette tape left in a car for two weeks would spontaneously turn into a copy of The Best of Queen.
 
lunardinosaur said:
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Pulled this from the Rock Row website, since PPH didn't include a photo. This is a cool idea, but the orientation seems a bit odd. Why not put the seating areas on the quarry side of Quarryside? Maybe it's different in person, I'd like to check it out.
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THAT is supposed to get us excited about what is to come??? It looks like an industrial storage site.
 
PlantArch said:
THAT is supposed to get us excited about what is to come??? It looks like an industrial storage site.
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That's not just what's coming, that's what's there now. I stopped in there tonight, although I wasn't drinking, etc. (although it was a bike event so some of our other posters might have been there). What I did do was hunt down 2 of the 3 pylons they had put up with VR QR codes about what's coming. (I think I saw the third, but it's far away, beyond the fencing for Quarryside in an area where it looks like the Turnpike is staging concrete bridge girders or something.)

Caption on A:
THE BOUTIQUE HOTEL
Scan to access rendering from Rock Row's boutique hotel. The hotel will feature world-class chef concepts, a wellness spa, and the lobby will be the living room of Rock Row and the community.
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Rock Row QR 1.jpg

Caption on B:
THE PLAZA & HEARTBEAT OF ROCK ROW
Rock Row's epicenter is where the boulevard meets the plaza. The plaza will be activated with year-round events including family-friendly and signature holiday events as well as an ice rink. This will be the heartbeat of Rock Row.
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Rock Row QR 2.jpg

If you can't get the QR codes to scan off the photos, please DM me and I'll share the links. I don't feel comfortable sharing them here directly.

I think it's worth noting that there are two tenants I specifically saw mentioned on these signs: Pottery Barn and, highlighted in the black square and apparently also sponsoring these signs, the return to the Portland area of... Williams-Sonoma!

(If you detect just a hint of sarcasm in my response to those tenants, you aren't listening hard enough... there was a lot more than a hint.)
 
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Personally I think that it would be great to see Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma come to Rock Row. Yes I am a typical American consumer contributing to the destruction of Earth....although I probably plant more trees than most.
 
mainejeff said:
Personally I think that it would be great to see Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma come to Rock Row. Yes I am a typical American consumer contributing to the destruction of Earth....although I probably plant more trees than most.
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The consumerism doesn't bother me; it's just that we already have PB at the Mall (and we had W-S until sometime during the pandemic). I'm more interested in "new and exciting", I suppose.

I will say, if you looked at the VR models, that brick building that is supposed to house WIlliams-Sonoma looks neat.
 
markhb said:
The consumerism doesn't bother me; it's just that we already have PB at the Mall (and we had W-S until sometime during the pandemic). I'm more interested in "new and exciting", I suppose.

I will say, if you looked at the VR models, that brick building that is supposed to house WIlliams-Sonoma looks neat.
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My big concern with Rock Row is that they have enough "national" name retailers to grow this project to its full potential. Local is great....but a lot of local businesses don't always have longevity and fade into the sunset eventually. A Food Hall is perfect for local businesses but filling up retail spaces inevitably fails unless your name is LL Bean.
 
mainejeff said:
My big concern with Rock Row is that they have enough "national" name retailers to grow this project to its full potential. Local is great....but a lot of local businesses don't always have longevity and fade into the sunset eventually. A Food Hall is perfect for local businesses but filling up retail spaces inevitably fails unless your name is LL Bean.
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If you find their food service brochure, they're already connected with a couple of names out of DC: Sfoglina and Norman Love Confections. If the menu here is anything like the one at Sfoglina in DC (I haven't been there, just looked it up) it'll be to die for. (With absolutely no shade being thrown at Casa Novello, which I also love.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be over here daydreaming of a Cheesecake Factory, despite knowing that it would inevitably lead to my bankruptcy and cardiac failure.
 
Just drove by today, crane is gone and the garage is unfinished, gates are locked....
 
I remember back in 2009, a hotel outside Las Vegas had just topped off its steel skeleton of about twenty stories. It stayed that way, and maybe it still is. I think this medical building steel skeleton near the cavernous rock quarry hole (it will never be anything more than a de facto cesspool, or to me) will stay this way too, or for a bit. And just what is the Nordic Therapy Lagoon? An expansive ice bath? And will it have a "pool bar"?
 
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I don't recall the Vegas hotel, but I do remember the Erector set that sat for years as a partially-built bunch of girders on East Grand Avenue in Old Orchard after the development foundered in the 80s. Hopefully this is resolved much quicker.

Do we even know who's developing this building? Is it Waterstone, or did they just subdivide the lot and someone else is on the hook?
 
TC_zoid said:
I remember back in 2009, a hotel outside Las Vegas had just topped off its steel skeleton of about twenty stories. It stayed that way, and maybe it still is.
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I was there in 2019 and it still looked like they had just walked off. I hope this is resolved quickly.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
They did just get a cash infusion to help move this along: https://www.mainebiz.biz/article/rock-row-investor-puts-86m-more-into-the-project#:~:text=Rock Row, the 110-acre,to a Dallas investment firm.
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I wonder if this investor pulled back on this funding?

That quarry-side beer garden has been a disaster. Every time I go by, it's empty. A neighbor of mine was vending at it for a short while, and Waterstone/Rock Row delayed payment to him, making a bunch of excuses.
 
TAL-fontainebleau-las-vegas-exterior-FNTNBLVN0923-846dee06ecc44488ab97379808ce0bed 2.jpg

This is the Las Vegas resort that was abandoned during construction back in 2007 and after years of court fights and changes in ownership is finally slated to open this December. So there is still hope for the medical office building at Rock Row. :)
 
markhb said:
Do we even know who's developing this building? Is it Waterstone, or did they just subdivide the lot and someone else is on the hook?
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Waterstone is developing it. I believe it's their largest single project to date, and most of their projects have been anchored in retail. It just seems that they're in way over their head.
 
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