More on The Forefront at Thompson's Point from The Portland Daily Sun.....
Forefront amphitheater subject to change at workshop
Written by David Carkhuff
A workshop today should pave the way for a public hearing on The Forefront at Thompson's Point, a $100 million proposed development featuring an events center, hotel, sports medicine facility, parking structure, restaurant and two office buildings.
What's unclear is if an outdoor amphitheater will remain part of the plans.
"We have plans that are still fluid for an amphitheatre to potentially be used for music off of the convention center," said Bill Ryan Jr., one of the partners in the development. Other partners are Jon Jennings and Chris Thompson.
In the plans, an events center and music hall are attached, and a 19,600-square-foot, 2,500-seat outdoor amphitheater is located off of that complex.
"Modifications and or alternative layouts for the concert hall and amphitheater may be presented at the workshop," the planning application reads.
"We're moving forward, every day, it's obviously a complicated project, a lot of work, but we're extremely happy with the reception we've received with the city and the state," Ryan said.
Last April, the partners unveiled their plans for a 30-acre site that has sat largely undeveloped.
"It's one of the bigger if not the biggest projects we've seen in many years," said Bill Needelman, senior planner with the city.
Today at 3:30 p.m., city planners will conduct a workshop in the Portland City Council Chambers, second floor of City Hall at 389 Congress St., Portland. Today's workshop will include a presentation by the applicants, a review of outstanding issues by city staff, and the public will have opportunity to ask questions and provide comment, Needelman said. The planning board will not make any decisions, other than to determine whether the application is ready for a public hearing, he said.
"It's been under review since 2011, so the applicants hope to hold their public hearing after this planning board workshop," Needelman said.
This will be the fourth workshop on The Forefront. The city received a final plan submission in March, with several changes from a set of preliminary plans last September. The current first-phase plans include:
•*An 80,000-square-foot event center. This is also a practice facility for the Maine Red Claws NBA Development League team and a practice space for indoor soccer and lacrosse. The event center is designed to accommodate crowds of up to 3,500 people for Red Claws games.
• A 29,600-square-foot concert hall. Originally sized at 32,000 square feet, this concert hall will seat up to 4,500 people.
• An 80,000-square-foot hotel. Located next to the events center, the hotel will offer 125 rooms, a ballroom and meeting space.
•*A 24,000-square-foot sports medicine and physical fitness facility. Also next to the events center, this building is part of a 80,000-square-foot, five-story building. The developers added 2,000 square feet to the sports medicine facility.
• A 732-space parking garage. This structure, located next to the events center, also would serve the nearby Portland Transportation Center, which houses the Amtrak Downeaster train.
• 718 parking spaces.
• A 6,000-square-foot restaurant. Developers added 380 square feet to this building.
• A 60,000-square-foot office building. This building shrank by 20,000 square feet.
• A 120,000-square-foot office building. This building grew by 20,000 square feet.
• A public access trail and publicly accessible small boat launch and kayak access.
A second phase envisions two, 75,000-square-foot office buildings on the northwest corner of the site; a 34,000-square-foot building in the center of the site; a 20,000-square-foot restaurant and office complex on the south end of the peninsula; and 1,450 parking spaces.
Thompson's Point includes intertidal lands, with 20 acres of buildable construction site.
"Thompson's Point hasn't had much in the way of redevelopment in 100 years," said Ryan.
"We hope that it has a positive impact, and we think it will. We always said that area is a gateway to the city." Ryan said of the development.
With a 4,800-person capacity for concerts, Ryan said, The Forefront isn't expected to compete with a newly renovated Cumberland County Civic Center. Voters last fall approved a $33 million project to renovate the Civic Center in Portland.
"It's a different animal entirely, the Civic Center is a great building for hockey obviously which is its primary tenant, but it's a different building entirely," Ryan said.
"In scale, the performance venue falls between Merrill Auditorium and the Civic Center. We don't view it as any kind of competition with the Civic Center," he said.
Forefront amphitheater subject to change at workshop
Written by David Carkhuff
A workshop today should pave the way for a public hearing on The Forefront at Thompson's Point, a $100 million proposed development featuring an events center, hotel, sports medicine facility, parking structure, restaurant and two office buildings.
What's unclear is if an outdoor amphitheater will remain part of the plans.
"We have plans that are still fluid for an amphitheatre to potentially be used for music off of the convention center," said Bill Ryan Jr., one of the partners in the development. Other partners are Jon Jennings and Chris Thompson.
In the plans, an events center and music hall are attached, and a 19,600-square-foot, 2,500-seat outdoor amphitheater is located off of that complex.
"Modifications and or alternative layouts for the concert hall and amphitheater may be presented at the workshop," the planning application reads.
"We're moving forward, every day, it's obviously a complicated project, a lot of work, but we're extremely happy with the reception we've received with the city and the state," Ryan said.
Last April, the partners unveiled their plans for a 30-acre site that has sat largely undeveloped.
"It's one of the bigger if not the biggest projects we've seen in many years," said Bill Needelman, senior planner with the city.
Today at 3:30 p.m., city planners will conduct a workshop in the Portland City Council Chambers, second floor of City Hall at 389 Congress St., Portland. Today's workshop will include a presentation by the applicants, a review of outstanding issues by city staff, and the public will have opportunity to ask questions and provide comment, Needelman said. The planning board will not make any decisions, other than to determine whether the application is ready for a public hearing, he said.
"It's been under review since 2011, so the applicants hope to hold their public hearing after this planning board workshop," Needelman said.
This will be the fourth workshop on The Forefront. The city received a final plan submission in March, with several changes from a set of preliminary plans last September. The current first-phase plans include:
•*An 80,000-square-foot event center. This is also a practice facility for the Maine Red Claws NBA Development League team and a practice space for indoor soccer and lacrosse. The event center is designed to accommodate crowds of up to 3,500 people for Red Claws games.
• A 29,600-square-foot concert hall. Originally sized at 32,000 square feet, this concert hall will seat up to 4,500 people.
• An 80,000-square-foot hotel. Located next to the events center, the hotel will offer 125 rooms, a ballroom and meeting space.
•*A 24,000-square-foot sports medicine and physical fitness facility. Also next to the events center, this building is part of a 80,000-square-foot, five-story building. The developers added 2,000 square feet to the sports medicine facility.
• A 732-space parking garage. This structure, located next to the events center, also would serve the nearby Portland Transportation Center, which houses the Amtrak Downeaster train.
• 718 parking spaces.
• A 6,000-square-foot restaurant. Developers added 380 square feet to this building.
• A 60,000-square-foot office building. This building shrank by 20,000 square feet.
• A 120,000-square-foot office building. This building grew by 20,000 square feet.
• A public access trail and publicly accessible small boat launch and kayak access.
A second phase envisions two, 75,000-square-foot office buildings on the northwest corner of the site; a 34,000-square-foot building in the center of the site; a 20,000-square-foot restaurant and office complex on the south end of the peninsula; and 1,450 parking spaces.
Thompson's Point includes intertidal lands, with 20 acres of buildable construction site.
"Thompson's Point hasn't had much in the way of redevelopment in 100 years," said Ryan.
"We hope that it has a positive impact, and we think it will. We always said that area is a gateway to the city." Ryan said of the development.
With a 4,800-person capacity for concerts, Ryan said, The Forefront isn't expected to compete with a newly renovated Cumberland County Civic Center. Voters last fall approved a $33 million project to renovate the Civic Center in Portland.
"It's a different animal entirely, the Civic Center is a great building for hockey obviously which is its primary tenant, but it's a different building entirely," Ryan said.
"In scale, the performance venue falls between Merrill Auditorium and the Civic Center. We don't view it as any kind of competition with the Civic Center," he said.
