April 2, 2007
On the waterfront | Two competing proposals to remake the Maine State Pier vie for public support in Portland
By Sara Donnelly
The first city council hearing on the two proposals for the Maine State Pier, a seven-acre waterside parcel jutting into Casco Bay from the Portland peninsula, at times resembled the final round of a high school debate competition.
Kevin Mahaney, the president of The Olympia Companies in Portland, who is vying against rival Ocean Properties for the city council's go-ahead, concluded his company's hour-long presentation by turning slightly at the podium toward several Ocean Properties representatives behind him, including Bob Baldacci and Ocean's chairman and founder Tom Walsh. With a tone more political than polite, Mahaney suggested Ocean Properties had pressured the city to condense the open call for proposals for the pier. "Ocean Properties wanted 30 days to do it and I can see why," Mahaney said to five of the city's nine councilors and a room packed with interested onlookers. "Their proposal probably took only about six."
Someone in the audience hissed. Members of the Ocean Properties team crossed their arms, shifted in their seats, shook their heads. According to local news reports, when Mahaney later tried to introduce himself to Ocean Properties spokesman Dennis Bailey outside of the council chambers, Bailey not only wouldn't shake his hand, he replied with an incredulous "six days?" and an expletive. Mahaney, who says friends warned him that "politics" could color the competition for the right to develop the pier, had managed to trigger public sparks in this tense battle to develop one of the most important projects in the city's history.
The 88-year-old Maine State Pier is located on the east end of Commercial Street next to the $20.7 million Ocean Gateway project, a massive waterfront development set for completion in September 2007 that will include an international ferry terminal. Portland City Councilor Jill Duson called Ocean Gateway "a catalyst for private investment in the eastern waterfront area" during a groundbreaking ceremony for the site in 2005. And city officials hope Ocean Gateway's immediate neighbor, the Maine State Pier, will only enhance the rebirth of this end of Portland's waterfront.
Building tension
In October 2006, Portland's purchasing department issued a Request for Proposals for the Maine State Pier. The request contained nine minimum requirements, including preserving deep-water berthing, integrating Casco Bay ferry terminal operations, and addressing the pier's decades-deep structural problems. Only two companies, Ocean Properties, headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H., and The Olympia Companies, in Portland, submitted proposals before the February 22 deadline. Both companies intend to erect a hotel and an office building on or near the pier, and both have set aside open space for parks. The Olympia Companies' proposal has been on its website since the deadline. Ocean Properties is still adjusting details of its design, though at least one city councilor, Kevin Donoghue, has said he will only consider the proposal Ocean turned in on February 22.
The two developers hoping to build what will be a roughly $90 million development enjoy a shared past. Kevin Mahaney's late father, Larry, was good friends and business partners with Mahaney's current rival Tom Walsh. The elder Mahaney and Walsh started their respective careers together when they developed property in central Maine during the 1970s.
Despite this happier history, competition between Ocean and Olympia began in earnest only days after the RFP deadline, when Ocean Properties pulled its proposal from its website and began reworking it. Mahaney stresses that his proposal has remained unchanged since the deadline, and Ocean Properties' late changes ˆ which include hiring green design consultant David Kaufman and moving their five-story parking garage further down Commercial Street to allow for a better ocean view ˆ appear to mimic design priorities that are part of Olympia's proposal. Bob Baldacci, the governor's brother and Ocean's vice president of development, says Ocean's changes are just a response to feedback from the community and are part of a "fluid process" Baldacci says is a normal part of an RFP, even after the deadline.
The tension between the two developers has riveted many in the Portland community, including plenty who work with local real estate. A lunchtime meeting in the middle of the work week in which the two developers described their proposals attracted around 400 people, dozens of whom stayed after the meeting to meet the key players and discuss the designs. The developers' vision of the future of the Maine State Pier and the maritime industries it supports has been covered in recent weeks by every major news outlet in town.
"It's a great spectator sport to watch them break each other up," says Peter Bass, whose development company, Random Orbit, has won two Portland RFP contracts. Bass has worked in Portland for over 20 years and is one of the few developers here unaffiliated personally or professionally with principal members of either team. Despite the cursing and sideways jabbing, Bass believes the public debate that's prompting Mahaney and Walsh to come out with guns blazing is an improvement over the way the RFP process used to work.
"The process in the past five years has changed," he says. "It weighs to community input quite a bit. It's not the good old boys network that it used to be."
Different strokes
Clinching public support in a city that briefly banned formula businesses because of public outcry may prove more critical to winning than big names, grandstanding, and even, perhaps, experience. Unpopular developments tend not to break ground here ˆ Joseph Boulos abandoned plans for his $250 million Lincoln Center in 2005 when he was denied public funding, and Portland voters sparked a legislative effort to restrict the citizens' veto when in the 1980s they stopped a Fisherman's Wharf project in the 11th hour.
In the fight for public affection, it's too early to say who is in the lead. There are as many Portlanders who are suspicious of Ocean's changing design as there are those who support it. Mahaney's plan, which includes plenty of public open space but few parking spaces, is progressive to some and foolish to just as many.
Ocean Properties is one of the largest private hotel developers in the country. Chairman Tom Walsh, 79, has developed and operated over 100 properties around the world and has three major projects in the works, each valued in excess of $120 million.
Ocean Properties, understandably, touts Walsh's significant experience and financial stability, and showcases its superstar Maine State Pier investor group that includes former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell. Walsh made clear his decades of experience building world-class luxury hotels in the 10-minute slide show he presented at both the city hall meeting and an earlier meeting sponsored by the Portland Regional Chamber. Ocean Properties has a
history of completing projects bigger than the Maine State Pier project.
The Olympia Companies was started in 1997 by Mahaney, 45, and has been the principal developer for approximately $100 million worth of projects since then. Mahaney commutes to Portland from his home in Greenwich, Conn. and, he says, his company has "had a crane in the air in Portland since 1997." His most recent projects include the Hilton Garden Inn on Commercial Street, a $13-million property he designed and constructed for the international Hilton Hotels chain, and a $13 million office building just behind the hotel at 280 Fore Street. Mahaney stresses his process ˆ he relied on feedback from community activists to design his proposal. Ocean Properties says it has had "over 100 meetings" with area stakeholders, but held its first public meeting on March 19.
Mahaney's dependence on public opinion could prove to be a decisive strength or a crippling weakness. In December, Mahaney's The Olympia Companies convened what it calls a "community consultation focus group" of 12 Portland leaders, including environmental activists, neighborhood advocates and former city officials. The focus group met four times during December and January without Mahaney's input, to suggest design elements for the pier, many of which made it into the final design that Mahaney submitted to the city in February. "This isn't Olympia Companies' plan," Mahaney said at the city hall meeting. "It's a plan that was generated by a process of reaching out to the community."
Nan Cumming, executive director of Portland Trails, was one of the members of the consultation group. She pushed for a design that incorporated the Eastern Promenade Trail, which begins near the pier. "I certainly saw nice trails and open space that I suggested," she says of Olympia's proposal. "So I was quite satisfied."
Cumming, along with many in the community consultation group, has yet to publicly endorse either proposal, but says she may eventually.
Thanks largely to the consultation group, Mahaney's plan embodies the progressive urban design themes that many activists on the peninsula tout. Whether Portland will choose his collaborative proposal over Ocean Properties' decades of impressive experience remains to be seen. According to Portland City Councilor Jim Cloutier, the Community Development Committee, which is the branch of the council first to review the pier proposals, will endorse one sometime in June. Cloutier has said that a committee endorsement, however, does not necessarily mean the whole council will choose that proposal.
Both Ocean and Olympia plan to finish their versions of the Maine State Pier in 2010.
Kevin Mahaney, the president of The Olympia Companies in Portland, who is vying against rival Ocean Properties for the city council's go-ahead, concluded his company's hour-long presentation by turning slightly at the podium toward several Ocean Properties representatives behind him, including Bob Baldacci and Ocean's chairman and founder Tom Walsh. With a tone more political than polite, Mahaney suggested Ocean Properties had pressured the city to condense the open call for proposals for the pier. "Ocean Properties wanted 30 days to do it and I can see why," Mahaney said to five of the city's nine councilors and a room packed with interested onlookers. "Their proposal probably took only about six."
Someone in the audience hissed. Members of the Ocean Properties team crossed their arms, shifted in their seats, shook their heads. According to local news reports, when Mahaney later tried to introduce himself to Ocean Properties spokesman Dennis Bailey outside of the council chambers, Bailey not only wouldn't shake his hand, he replied with an incredulous "six days?" and an expletive. Mahaney, who says friends warned him that "politics" could color the competition for the right to develop the pier, had managed to trigger public sparks in this tense battle to develop one of the most important projects in the city's history.
The 88-year-old Maine State Pier is located on the east end of Commercial Street next to the $20.7 million Ocean Gateway project, a massive waterfront development set for completion in September 2007 that will include an international ferry terminal. Portland City Councilor Jill Duson called Ocean Gateway "a catalyst for private investment in the eastern waterfront area" during a groundbreaking ceremony for the site in 2005. And city officials hope Ocean Gateway's immediate neighbor, the Maine State Pier, will only enhance the rebirth of this end of Portland's waterfront.
Building tension
In October 2006, Portland's purchasing department issued a Request for Proposals for the Maine State Pier. The request contained nine minimum requirements, including preserving deep-water berthing, integrating Casco Bay ferry terminal operations, and addressing the pier's decades-deep structural problems. Only two companies, Ocean Properties, headquartered in Portsmouth, N.H., and The Olympia Companies, in Portland, submitted proposals before the February 22 deadline. Both companies intend to erect a hotel and an office building on or near the pier, and both have set aside open space for parks. The Olympia Companies' proposal has been on its website since the deadline. Ocean Properties is still adjusting details of its design, though at least one city councilor, Kevin Donoghue, has said he will only consider the proposal Ocean turned in on February 22.
The two developers hoping to build what will be a roughly $90 million development enjoy a shared past. Kevin Mahaney's late father, Larry, was good friends and business partners with Mahaney's current rival Tom Walsh. The elder Mahaney and Walsh started their respective careers together when they developed property in central Maine during the 1970s.
Despite this happier history, competition between Ocean and Olympia began in earnest only days after the RFP deadline, when Ocean Properties pulled its proposal from its website and began reworking it. Mahaney stresses that his proposal has remained unchanged since the deadline, and Ocean Properties' late changes ˆ which include hiring green design consultant David Kaufman and moving their five-story parking garage further down Commercial Street to allow for a better ocean view ˆ appear to mimic design priorities that are part of Olympia's proposal. Bob Baldacci, the governor's brother and Ocean's vice president of development, says Ocean's changes are just a response to feedback from the community and are part of a "fluid process" Baldacci says is a normal part of an RFP, even after the deadline.
The tension between the two developers has riveted many in the Portland community, including plenty who work with local real estate. A lunchtime meeting in the middle of the work week in which the two developers described their proposals attracted around 400 people, dozens of whom stayed after the meeting to meet the key players and discuss the designs. The developers' vision of the future of the Maine State Pier and the maritime industries it supports has been covered in recent weeks by every major news outlet in town.
"It's a great spectator sport to watch them break each other up," says Peter Bass, whose development company, Random Orbit, has won two Portland RFP contracts. Bass has worked in Portland for over 20 years and is one of the few developers here unaffiliated personally or professionally with principal members of either team. Despite the cursing and sideways jabbing, Bass believes the public debate that's prompting Mahaney and Walsh to come out with guns blazing is an improvement over the way the RFP process used to work.
"The process in the past five years has changed," he says. "It weighs to community input quite a bit. It's not the good old boys network that it used to be."
Different strokes
Clinching public support in a city that briefly banned formula businesses because of public outcry may prove more critical to winning than big names, grandstanding, and even, perhaps, experience. Unpopular developments tend not to break ground here ˆ Joseph Boulos abandoned plans for his $250 million Lincoln Center in 2005 when he was denied public funding, and Portland voters sparked a legislative effort to restrict the citizens' veto when in the 1980s they stopped a Fisherman's Wharf project in the 11th hour.
In the fight for public affection, it's too early to say who is in the lead. There are as many Portlanders who are suspicious of Ocean's changing design as there are those who support it. Mahaney's plan, which includes plenty of public open space but few parking spaces, is progressive to some and foolish to just as many.
Ocean Properties is one of the largest private hotel developers in the country. Chairman Tom Walsh, 79, has developed and operated over 100 properties around the world and has three major projects in the works, each valued in excess of $120 million.
Ocean Properties, understandably, touts Walsh's significant experience and financial stability, and showcases its superstar Maine State Pier investor group that includes former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell. Walsh made clear his decades of experience building world-class luxury hotels in the 10-minute slide show he presented at both the city hall meeting and an earlier meeting sponsored by the Portland Regional Chamber. Ocean Properties has a
history of completing projects bigger than the Maine State Pier project.
The Olympia Companies was started in 1997 by Mahaney, 45, and has been the principal developer for approximately $100 million worth of projects since then. Mahaney commutes to Portland from his home in Greenwich, Conn. and, he says, his company has "had a crane in the air in Portland since 1997." His most recent projects include the Hilton Garden Inn on Commercial Street, a $13-million property he designed and constructed for the international Hilton Hotels chain, and a $13 million office building just behind the hotel at 280 Fore Street. Mahaney stresses his process ˆ he relied on feedback from community activists to design his proposal. Ocean Properties says it has had "over 100 meetings" with area stakeholders, but held its first public meeting on March 19.
Mahaney's dependence on public opinion could prove to be a decisive strength or a crippling weakness. In December, Mahaney's The Olympia Companies convened what it calls a "community consultation focus group" of 12 Portland leaders, including environmental activists, neighborhood advocates and former city officials. The focus group met four times during December and January without Mahaney's input, to suggest design elements for the pier, many of which made it into the final design that Mahaney submitted to the city in February. "This isn't Olympia Companies' plan," Mahaney said at the city hall meeting. "It's a plan that was generated by a process of reaching out to the community."
Nan Cumming, executive director of Portland Trails, was one of the members of the consultation group. She pushed for a design that incorporated the Eastern Promenade Trail, which begins near the pier. "I certainly saw nice trails and open space that I suggested," she says of Olympia's proposal. "So I was quite satisfied."
Cumming, along with many in the community consultation group, has yet to publicly endorse either proposal, but says she may eventually.
Thanks largely to the consultation group, Mahaney's plan embodies the progressive urban design themes that many activists on the peninsula tout. Whether Portland will choose his collaborative proposal over Ocean Properties' decades of impressive experience remains to be seen. According to Portland City Councilor Jim Cloutier, the Community Development Committee, which is the branch of the council first to review the pier proposals, will endorse one sometime in June. Cloutier has said that a committee endorsement, however, does not necessarily mean the whole council will choose that proposal.
Both Ocean and Olympia plan to finish their versions of the Maine State Pier in 2010.
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