Thompson's Point, Portland

I am amused that the developer's last name is Thompson! Talked to him a few times this past year and he is a decent guy and really seems committed to project completion.
 
Interesting they wanna go 120 feet there. That will look much better coming in from 295 south than the previous designs. Any issues with height being near the airport? Can't imagine 120 feet would cause anything
 
A 120 foot building would be pretty impressive on this site. I'm also excited by the proposal in the article to "increase residential density from 60 units per acre to 120 units per acre." Seems like a step in the right direction.

Just for a random point of reference, the Intermed Building on Marginal Way is 135 feet tall according to Emporis.com. Looking at the approaches that planes take into the jetport it looks like the tallest proposed building on Thompson's Point would have plenty of room.
 
I hope this project finally gets completed, though I wish the convention center/arena portion was located downtown instead. There are three undeveloped large parcels where it would be a great fit. The Top of the Old Port lot on Congress St, the Riverwalk property on Thames St, or the vacant land that is bordered by Spring, Center, Cross and Commercial Streets. My feeling is that if Thompson's Point is developed as planned, it will remove any chance of a first class convention center ever being built in the city center where it belongs in my opinion.
 
Portlander said:
I hope this project finally gets completed, though I wish the convention center/arena portion was located downtown instead. There are three undeveloped large parcels where it would be a great fit. The Top of the Old Port lot on Congress St, the Riverwalk property on Thames St, or the vacant land that is bordered by Spring, Center, Cross and Commercial Streets. My feeling is that if Thompson's Point is developed as planned, it will remove any chance of a first class convention center ever being built in the city center where it belongs in my opinion.
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I agree downtown would be more ideal, however I am of the opinion that the market for conventions has shrunken drastically from when a center was originally conceived for one of those lots in the 1980s (which I learned about thanks to your newspaper articles, by the way). I think the internet and other technologies make actual conventions somewhat less important. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm thinking the downtown real estate will continue to grow toward residential and mixed-use as best returns on investment projects.
 
The updated site plan is up on the Planning Board website for tomorrow's meeting. No renderings, but I'm excited about the apparent increased density of this project.
 
Wow what a great new layout. I wasn't overly excited about this project as it was a few months ago but now it's like a little city. Somebody with talent post the last two pages layout pics. Notice an area labeled "outdoor beer garden"?
Hmmmm
 
grittys457 said:
Notice an area labeled "outdoor beer garden"?
Hmmmm
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Yup, it'll be overlooking the water too, which will make it a nice spot on a warm summer day.

It looks like they also brought back the plans for a small outdoor amphitheater. It'll be interesting to see if this one and the one planned in South Portland both get built. This one looks smaller than what they're planning in SoPo, though.

Judging by this new layout, the hotel, office building and both residential towers could all be 10 stories tall. Very nice. This will be an impressive development to view as you're driving along I-295; that is, if it gets built (queue the Libbytown NIMBYs crying that the project is "out of scale" with the neighborhood).
 
grittys457 said:
Somebody with talent post the last two pages layout pics.
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Finally, I feel useful:

3BrtCCd.jpg


PxIuyjy.jpg


I agree with the earlier comments, these plans look much improved. Here are some photos I posted recently of one of the buildings currently standing on the site. I think I heard this is the building whose roof was part of the Union Station train shed and may be preserved (apparently as multi-purpose building B1 in these plans).
 
It would be strange if they were switching to keeping the trainshed intact as part of the development. In the other concepts that have floated since the circus school became lead tenant, they were saving the two large brick buildings (A and part of C1 in the plan above). My hunch is that they would make C1 an enlargement of the existing structure (which is the one with the prominent "Mister Sparky" signage on top, easily the signature existing building on the Point). One thought that came to me was that, if they don't have a tenant ready to make building new on the trainshed site immediately prudent, they could clean up the shed and remove the east side to make a covering over the stage and premium seating for the concert area.

I'm glad to see the pier for water access. With some of the discussion that has taken place regarding a LRV system to connect the Point to downtown, I think we should use the already-in-place natural infrastructure we have: Duck Boat water taxis that could go directly from the PTC off the end of the Point (even at low tide), come back on land via the current Portland Yacht Services ramp, make stops (with permanent access ramps or lifts available) at Ocean Gateway, Casco Bay Lines, and the DiMillo's parking lot at Long Wharf, then turn around and come back to PTC the same way.

It looks like they also brought back the plans for a small outdoor amphitheater. It'll be interesting to see if this one and the one planned in South Portland both get built. This one looks smaller than what they're planning in SoPo, though.
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It's also interesting that the SoPo project is being driven by their new Assistant City manager, Jon Jennings, who was heading this project at the time that the concert facility was still part of it. My hunch is that this one won't host much more than student performances.

A side question: how many posts do I have to have made before I can post attachments? I have some photos I took of the Cross Insurance Center when I happened to be in Bangor during their grand opening Open House.
 
It appears that Thompson's Point is back on the Planning Board agenda next week. Unfortunately, all they have on the table is a "Phase 1A" that entails renovating what they are calling the "North Brick" building, indicated as Mixed-Use building A in the plan posted above. They want to do minimal enhancements to the area so they can get this building into use ASAP due to apparent demand, but the docs they submitted seem to have a fair amount of "if the rest of the master plan is unable to be completed" contingency language.
 
markhb said:
It would be strange if they were switching to keeping the trainshed intact as part of the development. In the other concepts that have floated since the circus school became lead tenant, they were saving the two large brick buildings (A and part of C1 in the plan above). My hunch is that they would make C1 an enlargement of the existing structure (which is the one with the prominent "Mister Sparky" signage on top, easily the signature existing building on the Point). One thought that came to me was that, if they don't have a tenant ready to make building new on the trainshed site immediately prudent, they could clean up the shed and remove the east side to make a covering over the stage and premium seating for the concert area.

I'm glad to see the pier for water access. With some of the discussion that has taken place regarding a LRV system to connect the Point to downtown, I think we should use the already-in-place natural infrastructure we have: Duck Boat water taxis that could go directly from the PTC off the end of the Point (even at low tide), come back on land via the current Portland Yacht Services ramp, make stops (with permanent access ramps or lifts available) at Ocean Gateway, Casco Bay Lines, and the DiMillo's parking lot at Long Wharf, then turn around and come back to PTC the same way.


It's also interesting that the SoPo project is being driven by their new Assistant City manager, Jon Jennings, who was heading this project at the time that the concert facility was still part of it. My hunch is that this one won't host much more than student performances.

A side question: how many posts do I have to have made before I can post attachments? I have some photos I took of the Cross Insurance Center when I happened to be in Bangor during their grand opening Open House.
Click to expand...

You post the image URL in between brackets like this
 
It's in today's paper, at the end of the article which focuses on the School Dept. taking over the old Goodwill building on Cumberland Ave.
 
mainejeff said:
How come this wasn't in the PPH? How come the BDN seems to scoop the PPH on a lot of Portland development news???
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I asked a former Editor at the Press Herald the question as to why I get the news about the Portland area much sooner and more in depth from the Bangor Daily. He said it's simple their news department/reporters are much better and work harder than the Press Herald's.
Time after time I read articles on the Bangor Daily website about Portland development news or the Portland Pirates/Civic Center situation, etc. and a day or two later the Press Herald has a similar article.
 
This is coming before the Planning Board again for a workshop on Tuesday. The background materials (and presumably latest-latest site plans) aren't up yet, but the legal advertisement (as shown on the City website) says:
The Planning Board will hold a workshop to consider a Master Development Plan proposal for the Thompson's Point site, which consists of approximately 30 acres of land located adjacent to the Portland Transportation Center. The applicant’s master development plan for the Forefront at Thompson’s Point involves a mixed-use development including an event center, hotel, sports medicine facility, educational facility, residential condominiums, restaurants, offices, and an associated parking structure.
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