Scarborough, ME

Some renderings of the next phase of the "Town Center" which will include a Market Basket, general retail and a 5-story mixed-use building with 76 apartments

Plus, a lot of parking 😵‍💫

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On the one hand, yes, it's a strip mall with a 5-story apartment building on one side. Hopefully the rents will be more affordable to compensate all those residents whose units are going to look out on a scorched field of asphalt with carbon monoxide and ozone and black soot wafting through their windows.

On the other hand, imagine how many other strip malls (looking at you, Rock Row) could be vastly improved if they tore up 60 of their least-used parking spaces and built 76 apartments in their place?
 
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That's gross. The one interesting thing is the pass through under the apartments.
 
Is there a locator map to better show where on the property that development is going to be?
 
Here's a site overview map from https://www.thedowns.com/work. It's dated from April 2024 and is slightly different from what's being proposed now, but the Market Basket building is shown on here, below/left of the buildings labelled "49" and "50".

One thing to keep in mind is that the renderings above don't show the rest of the planned "town center." This new mixed-use building isn't going to be all alone; it's going to face a new Main Street where several other mixed-use 5-over-1 buildings are being built and planned, and the new Market Basket is going to be within walking distance of the rest of the neighborhood.

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Some photos of the nearly-complete Cross Street Condos building in this week's Press Herald real estate section. Looks like a second elevator core is under construction next door in the second photo:

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Was in the neighborhood the other evening and got some photos – most of the "town center" site has been cleared and prepped, with a lot of equipment on the Market Basket site, but it's just a massive mostly-empty plain of dirt with the new Cross Street Condos off to one side like a bizarre relic.

A pretty eerie place right now – might be cool to revisit these same shots in 4-5 years when (or if) the new buildings, landscaping, and streets are all built out.

Note that there's a second elevator core built next door to the new Cross Street condo building, but there's been no additional work on the site. Seems like they had the same contractors build both cores and foundations at the same time even though the rest of the second building seems to be on hold for now...

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I'm not a Market Basket shopper, but it seems like people who shop there are very passionate about the place. I'm wondering if the firing of Arthur T and the threatened boycotts will change the plan for Scarborough.
 
I was in the Westbrook store yesterday and talked about it with a couple of cashiers; they were oblivious to it. I don't think any boycotts are going to hit Maine as hard; MB hasn't been here long enough to really be part of our culture the way it is in Mass.
 
The Mariners chose The Downs over Rock Row (those were the two supposed finalists) for their new practice/training facility: https://www.marinersofmaine.com/new...ractice-ice-arena-at-the-downs-in-scarborough

They've been using the UNE rink in Biddeford this season for pre-season training, practice and even games.

Edited to add: According to the plans in the Scarborough Planning Board agenda for this month, this will be across the Downs entrance road from Costco. They're planning for one sheet of ice to start but building it to eventually accommodate two sheets. As a hockey parent and someone involved in youth hockey in this area, this will be huge. We need more ice.

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Rock Row should concentrate on what it's been proposing to build all along, and not give over sparse space to an ice arena (although I will admit that the area needs more ice).
 
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