Westbrook, ME

I'm not entirely certain, but I believe the parcels in question are the main 58 acre JB-Brown parcel in Red and the 8-arce Westbrook Development Corp. parcel in Blue

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Full Article: (No Renderings)

I was hoping it would be where the Park & Ride is, but it'll be where @Cosakita18 depicted.

A big apartment complex neighboring Rock Row and aimed at reducing the housing shortage in Westbrook could begin construction as early as next year, but an entrance to the complex could be a sticking point.
Westbrook Development Corp. is partnering with J.B. Brown & Sons of Portland to propose 500 apartment units on 58 acres off Westbrook Arterial at its intersection with Larrabee Road.

The corporation, a development arm of Westbrook Housing Authority, would construct 100 affordable apartments at the site while Brown & Sons would build and own 400 market rate units, according to Tyler Norod, Westbrook Development Corp.’s development director. The project is in the initial planning stages.

“We’re pretty excited. Housing is a big need,” Vincent Veroneau, president and CEO of Brown & Sons, said Tuesday. The housing market “is in a crisis,” Norod said.

“We desperately need more housing at a variety of price points to help ease demand for our community members,” Norod said. “This site will go a long way to ease that burden.”

Brown & Sons owns, manages and leases dozens of commercial, retail and residential properties in greater Portland, including an office building on Saunders Way in Westbrook and the Maine Today Media building at 295 Gannett Drive in South Portland that houses the operations of the Portland Press Herald, Maine Sunday Telegram, The Forecaster papers and American Journal. The development site is on the opposite side of Westbrook Arterial from Rock Row. Access to it from the arterial could be an issue with the city.

Entrance options are off Stroudwater Street in the area of the middle school or off the arterial through an 8-acre parcel owned by Westbrook Development Corp. That parcel is adjacent to the Brown & Sons property, now mostly an open field formerly owned by the Snyder family of Stroudwater Street. Brown & Sons prefers an entry to the complex from the arterial, but Veroneau said city staff have cited potential pedestrian safety issues there, possibly because of the potential for apartment residents to walk to Rock Row. He said those concerns could be satisfactorily addressed. Early plans call for walking and bike paths that Chris LaRoche, housing authority executive director, said would connect to Stroudwater Street across from the middle school. LaRoche said their plan, with access from the arterial, would keep additional traffic off heavily traveled Stroudwater Street.

The affordable housing component would be built in phases over a number of years, Norod said. Between 150 and 200 of the market rate apartments would be built initially, according to Veroneau. Norod emphasized plans are “very preliminary,” architectural renderings are unavailable, and they haven’t filed the project with the Westbrook Planning Board. Veroneau expects to submit a proposal to the city in “a couple months,” and Norod said he hopes construction could begin in 2024.
The site is one of “the best residential locations left in Southern Maine,” Norod said. It is near Metro bus lines, jobs, Maine Turnpike Exit 47 and the Portland Trails system. The site is about a mile from Hannaford and shopping in downtown Westbrook.
A neighbor of the proposed development, Simon Snyder, said he hopes it will incorporate open space near his house.

“Nostalgically, we will miss having this significant open space surrounding our family home. We would hope that the Stroudwater Street end of the site would still provide the feel of open space so that our home maintains some semi-rural character,” Snyder said.

Mayor Michael Foley, noting that the city has been “working diligently to support the development of quality, safe and affordable housing in our community,” said he and other city officials look forward to the formal review process for the project, which will include public participation. “We are excited for the potential infusion of housing units in the community to support the current housing shortage,” Foley said.
 
The affordable housing component would be built in phases over a number of years, Norod said. The Portland area needs over 10,000 affordable units and this would be done in phases? I think the 800 lb. gorilla is in the room and in the form of xenophobia.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
With the parking garage opening later this summer, the RFP has gone out to redevelop the primary City-owned downtown parking lots.

Bids • Downtown Mixed-Use Redevelopment Project

Bid Publication Date/Time: 3/27/2023 12:00 AM; Closing Date/Time: 4/25/2023 1:00 PM
www.westbrookmaine.com www.westbrookmaine.com
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Westbrook is eager to develop. They'll take the projects Portland will dilly-dally on. Hopefully any developments here are a minimum of 4 stories. Will draw some additional restaurants and retail, which residents want. Gorham residents also enjoy coming to Westbrook too. It'll create some nice density and in-fill.
 
PWMFlyer said:
Sappi Mill closed? Guard house boarded up, gates chained. This could be the end but the start of redevelopment.
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Maybe tweet it at the Press Herald or one or more TV stations? Definitely sounds newsworthy if it's truly closing for good.
 
PWMFlyer said:
Sappi Mill closed? Guard house boarded up, gates chained. This could be the end but the start of redevelopment.
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The Sappi Warren mill isn't closed. They manufacture "Release papers" which are essentially specialty paper-based textured materials used in a fairly limited array off applications. There's no actual pulping done there and It has by far the lowest output of any of the paper mills operating in the state....but it's not closed.
 
Guard House boarded up. It seems one half of the plant is locked up with no access. This is the river road access
 

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There's not really using anything being used on that side of the plant now with the biomass boiler shutdown and mothballed. The last remaining paper machine is on the Warren Ave. side of the river at the plant.
 
Now I wonder if they're still getting their raw materials by rail at all (the River Road side that was the furthest in-use reach of the Mountain Branch is inbound, the Warren Ave. side where the tracks were recently removed through the rotary was outbound).
 
markhb said:
Now I wonder if they're still getting their raw materials by rail at all (the River Road side that was the furthest in-use reach of the Mountain Branch is inbound, the Warren Ave. side where the tracks were recently removed through the rotary was outbound).
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They aren't. They haven't received anything by rail since they shut down their No. 9 Machine in 2020. Even before then they were only taking very sporadic carloads of latex or kaolin clay. The mill is active but has very low output overall.

I don't even really think of it as a "paper mill". Nowadays it's really a niche manufacturing facility that makes paper-based products.
 
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I still hear an occasional train whistle for a delivery (about one every week-and-a-half). I live a half-mile from the Cumberland Street rail entrance and work from home.

I believe they're still getting pulp via rail from the Skowhegan mill. That's really the only activity happening on this side of the river at the mill.

It's only a matter of time before they shutter the place, especially with the investment they're making at the Skowhegan operation. One thing I can imagine weighing on that decision is what to do with what is likely heavily polluted property that would require significant remediation to sell.
 
Dr. StrangeHat said:
I still hear an occasional train whistle for a delivery (about one every week-and-a-half). I live a half-mile from the Cumberland Street rail entrance and work from home.

I believe they're still getting pulp via rail from the Skowhegan mill. That's really the only activity happening on this side of the river at the mill.

It's only a matter of time before they shutter the place, especially with the investment they're making at the Skowhegan operation. One thing I can imagine weighing on that decision is what to do with what is likely heavily polluted property that would require significant remediation to sell.
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There's a propane / LPG distribution facility just off of Larrabee Road that gets switched out regularly so that's probably what you're hearing That's the only active rail customer on the Mountain Branch as of now.

You could also possibly be hearing the switching job that goes down the industrial trackage from Deering Junction (Morrills Corner) paralell to Warren Ave down to BlueLinx building materials on Warren Ave. They've been receiving cars more regularly since CSX took over.

The line west of Forest Street is essentially OOS. The fairly small amount of pulp the mill receives is all trucked in.
 
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Cosakita18 said:
You could also possibly be hearing the switching job that goes down the industrial trackage from Deering Junction (Morrills Corner) paralell to Warren Ave down to BlueLinx building materials on Warren Ave. They've been receiving cars more regularly since CSX took over.
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Wow, didn't realize that line was still operational that far down Warren Ave. I always assumed it was effectively abandoned after Bishop Street.
 
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