Thompson's Point, Portland

[Corey]

A couple recent-ish views of the Point:

 

[Dr. StrangeHat]

The plans are up on the Planning Board website. Lots of renderings and details.

I'm kind of disappointed in the initial designs of both the arena and the parking garage. The north and east facades of the arena, which will be very noticeable from 1-295, make it look like a typical faceless college field house and could use a little more imagination. The parking garage does little to hide the fact that it's a parking garage.

I like the other building designs, though, especially the circus conservatory buildings.

 

[Portlander]

I just do not have a good feeling on this project's actual feasibility and whether it will ever get completed as planned. There are just too many buildings that have silly titles like the "cultural" center, and if you are counting on the circus conservatory as a tourist draw and one of your primary tenants I would be concerned. Hope I am wrong because I do like the mid size arena/event center and think it will draw concerts and shows that would not fill the Civic Center. Any new construction will be an improvement over what is presently there!

 

[markhb]

ITA with the "disappointing" aspect of the "Pavillion" (rhymes with "Papillon"?); it reminds me of the field house (which I believe has since been renovated to replace the front wall with windows) at RPI:

In addition, the rough sketch of the seating layout doesn't tell me much about the ADA access; are wheelchairs banished to the back row or the expensive courtside seats? I'd love to see them go higher, perhaps bringing back the convention center idea with breakout rooms on a lower level and an arena space more in line with what's been done with the Cross Center.

The garage, OTOH, doesn't bother me; I don't mind parking garages and don't see why they should have to pretend they're something else. It actually looks more "done up" than the arena, the theoretical centerpiece of the project, does!

One thing I liked is that in the "Plans" document, they gave a step-by-step rendering of the buildout in each of the phases, showing the evolution of the buildings as well as things like surface parking. They're also still planning for a boat dock at the foot of the Point, which I like because there's a decent depth there, even at low tide, and I'd like to see them pursue something like a Duck Boat water taxi to the waterfront.

EDIT: In looking through the submitted materials, I found the currently-proposed development schedule as presented at the Neighborhood Meeting in December: (Phases from the site plan maps, Phases 1G, 2B and 2C were not mentioned in the meeting minutes that are in the packet.)

"Brick North" (existing Building A, Phase 1A) - "being renovated as a mixed-use building." Projected finish date: Summer 2014. (Phase 1A also includes the improved Thompson's Point Road access to the site.)

"The Depot" - Building B1, Phase 1B, the former train shed pictured in Corey's post above - "to be renovated to become an open-sided structure.... It will be the support building for the outdoor concert area that can accommodate approximately 4800 and will hold summer concerts and other performances." Projected finish date: Summer 2014

"Circus Conservatory" (Building C, phase 1C, aka Brick South, the big one that already has the Circus signage painted on) - "Most of the building will be renovated with 7,000 square feet of the original structure to be adaptively reused." Projected finish date: Fall 2015. It looks more like "all but 7,000 square feet will be torn down and replaced" to me from the renderings.

Suburban Propane relocation to Riverside St.: Projected start date: Fall 2014. This is a prereq to the parking garage and arena buildout.

Sports medicine building (Building D, Phase 1D): anticipated start date Summer 2014. This phase also includes Building B2, a small building adjoining The Depot.

"125-room Hotel and Restaurant" (Buildings E1 and E2 respectively, Phase 1E): "Restaurant will be 6,000 sq. ft. with indoor seating an a seasonal outdoor patio, potentially with upper floors consisting of office space." Projected start date: Fall 2015. The hotel will be the first building to stretch to the new 120 foot height limit.

Two levels of residential condos will also be built atop the hotel.

Parking Garage (Buildings F1 and F2, Phase 1F), appx. 730 spaces, Projected finish date Fall 2017

(Phase 1G is Building G, a 9-story office building to be just to the northwest of the hotel, no date info available.)

Event Center (Building H, Phase 1H): Projected finish date Fall 2017

Cultural Center (Building I, Phase 2A), anticipated start date fall 2015.

(Phase 2B: Buildings J1 and J2, the office/residential towers to the northwest of Building G, no date given.)

(Phase 2C: Building B3, a mixed use or possibly restaurant alongside B2, no date given.)

 

[markhb]

Public Hearing on the Master Plan this Tuesday, 7 Pm (not the 5 Pm time that was used for Midtown). The city is currently posting materials for that meeting, but they haven't updated the Thompson's Point section yet.

 

[markhb]

I hate to follow my own point, but the BDN has the story about tonight's public hearing on Forefront. The story focuses on anticipated road widenings and parking availability, but the meat of it is that the item was eventually tabled.

 

[Sommarnatt]

Making the Fore River Parkway only a two lane road is certainly looking like it was a great decision...

 

[markhb]

Thompson's Point Partners have requested that their hearing be tabled for 2 more weeks so they can have time to bring additional info to the Board.

 

[mainejeff]

If Thompson Point Arena is built........I wonder if they will host the high school basketball tourney? The CCCC got a lot of bad publicity and flack despite its $34 million renovation. I guess it would have helped if they had painted the correct 3-point line for high school basketball instead of having to put tape down as a temporary solution. Yikes.

 

[Portlander]

I work near the CCCC and other than the high school 3 point line (Hancock Lumber donated floor) and some required modifications to the loading bays, I was not aware of "a lot of bad publicity and flack" via local media or from event goers? I attended the home show and one tournament basketball game with my girlfriend and heard only favorable comments concerning the renovations. All renovated or new structures required some time to work the bugs out and there are some final touches still to come prior to the arena's open house next month.

I hope, but am not totally convinced we will ever see a Thompson's Point arena and would actually prefer to have the Red Claws play their home games at the Civic Center with the Expo as a back up for scheduling conflicts with the Pirates. I just do not see the need for a 3500-4500 seat building at Thompson's Point when the Civic Center meets that need in a half house configuration for concerts. Also remember that Portland has the Merrill Auditorium (2000 seats) and the State Theater (1600 seats) along with much smaller options at the Port City Music Hall and One Longfellow Square. If a 10,000 capacity outdoor concert venue materializes on the South Portland waterfront it will add another choice for promoters.

 

[markhb]

I don't think the Red Claws want to play at the CCCC. It's unlikely they would ever fill it, and the hockey layout means that the stands are that much farther from the floor. I'm pretty sure from what they've submitted to the Planning Board that they want a basketball-only arena, packed every night with the fans right on top of the players as much as possible. I'd just like to see them add the convention center breakout rooms back into the design.

 

[markhb]

Once again, I'm following my own post :-(. The documents for Tuesday's Planning Board meeting have been posted; note that the docs from the prior meeting are there as well, with a dark gray background in the listing. The latest applicant's submission includes 2 new renderings, of the Phase 2 "panhandle" towers as viewed from Powsland St. and Willow Lane (slightly edited by me to reduce whitespace):

 

[PortlandArch]

Once again, I'm following my own post :-(. The documents for Tuesday's Planning Board meeting have been posted; note that the docs from the prior meeting are there as well, with a dark gray background in the listing. The latest applicant's submission includes 2 new renderings, of the Phase 2 "panhandle" towers as viewed from Powsland St. and Willow Lane (slightly edited by me to reduce whitespace):

I can only speak for myself, but I read your posts just too busy to respond most of the time. Thanks for posting these.

 

[mainejeff]

Great renderings of what those condos will look like. Those buildings would change the skyline in that area for sure. Good location for them, though.......I would just worry about the traffic in and out of there.

 

[Patrick]

Any project which would generate more than 100 trips at peak hour needs to have a traffic movement permit and traffic management plan -- all parts of the approval process and all already addressed for the prior iteration of this project.

 

[SHAZBAT73]

They should look pretty impressive from the 295 bridge heading north

 

[mainejeff]

Any news put of this thing?.......or are we going to go through another warm weather construction season with no signs of life?

 

[markhb]

Any news put of this thing?.......or are we going to go through another warm weather construction season with no signs of life?

The roadwork is already underway. So far as building work goes, the schedule I cribbed from their neighborhood meeting notes and posted here in January says:

"Brick North" (existing Building A, Phase 1A) - "being renovated as a mixed-use building." Projected finish date: Summer 2014. (Phase 1A also includes the improved Thompson's Point Road access to the site.)

"The Depot" - Building B1, Phase 1B, the former train shed pictured in Corey's post above - "to be renovated to become an open-sided structure.... It will be the support building for the outdoor concert area that can accommodate approximately 4800 and will hold summer concerts and other performances." Projected finish date: Summer 2014

"Circus Conservatory" (Building C, phase 1C, aka Brick South, the big one that already has the Circus signage painted on) - "Most of the building will be renovated with 7,000 square feet of the original structure to be adaptively reused." Projected finish date: Fall 2015. It looks more like "all but 7,000 square feet will be torn down and replaced" to me from the renderings.

Suburban Propane relocation to Riverside St.: Projected start date: Fall 2014. This is a prereq to the parking garage and arena buildout.

Sports medicine building (Building D, Phase 1D): anticipated start date Summer 2014. This phase also includes Building B2, a small building adjoining The Depot.

I haven't seen anything recently about the Suburban Propane move, and I certainly haven't seen any activity at the Riverside St. site they'd be moving to. Of the other items above, "Brick North" would largely be interior work AFAICT, "The Depot" sounds like it primarily involves putting a new roof on the trainshed, and I did note that the fancy "Circus Conservatory" sign on "Brick South" has been whitewashed over, scant months after it was painted on. I assume that's preparatory to starting the renovation/demo work.

 

[markhb]

If anyone wants a legitimate reason to not only go onto the Point, but actually inside Brick North, Hub Furniture has a full-page ad in today's Press Herald saying that they have lost their lease for their distribution center, and therefore "EVERYTHING MUST GO!" Hours are today (Saturday) until 6 Pm, Sunday 12-5, Monday 10-8.

(Correction: the warehouse sale is actually in "Brick South," the large building that formerly had the signage painted on top.)

Good to see some signs of change down there (and hopefully Hub will find affordable warehouse space... interesting that we hear so much about a dumpy rehearsal space for garage bands and nothing about the other affected businesses).

 

[Corey]

From earlier this month:

Happy to see a sidewalk/path finally being built here: