May 29, 2006
A room with a view | Condo developers are eyeing Bath's waterfront, but city officials want to preserve industry, too
By Taylor Smith
The city of Bath saw its last residential development boom in the late 1980s. At the peak of that housing craze, subdivisions and condominiums sprung up around the city, but the pace eventually slowed through the 90s.
But since the beginning of the year, a relative flood of development proposals has been submitted to Bath officials. The proposals have been almost exclusively residential, from upscale condominium projects on the waterfront to a 130-plus-unit housing development planned for a ridge southwest of Bath's bucolic downtown. "Nothing has happened here since the late 80s," says James Upham, Bath's city planner. "Suburban growth just hasn't happened here."
Recent proposals reflect more than just a cyclical housing boom. The plans signal change for the city on the banks of the Kennebec River, where the downtown stretch of waterfront is thinly developed with a small number of apartment buildings, retail shops and taverns. At least three condo proposals are on the table for land along the river, and developers have performed preliminary site work on another waterfront property, according to Upham. If approved, those projects will transform a waterfront that once hosted sardine canneries and boat building shops into a stretch of condos and stores. As the development proposals increase in frequency and scale, city officials face a difficult challenge: Where does Bath go from here?
John Hall and Ed Rogers, co-owners of J.R. Maxwell & Co., a restaurant on Front Street in downtown Bath, think they know. The pair is responsible for one of the development proposals being mulled by officials, the 24-unit, three-building New Bathport complex just steps from the Kennebec. And Hall and Rogers are betting that they won't have any trouble filling those units. "To me, this is the best waterfront condominium development in Maine," says Rogers.
But with condo prices at New Bathport expected to start at about $650,000, Hall and Rogers aren't banking solely on water views to bring in potential buyers. Instead, the pair is betting they can tap into the increasing number of retirees and empty nesters that many say are picking Bath as a place to relocate.
Yet there's no guarantee any of the development proposals will ever amount to anything more than a site plan filed away in Upham's office. That's because officials ˆ as well as some residents ˆ are reluctant to hand the keys to developers who could quickly transform the city's compact downtown. As a result, officials have kept a tight rein on recent development proposals, asking for revisions to some and outright refusing others.
Living by the river
The bulk of recent debate has centered around two controversial projects ˆ New Bathport and a proposal from Bruce Poliquin, a developer from Yarmouth who wants to remake the former Stinson Seafood sardine cannery just upriver from downtown Bath into a 40-unit condo complex and full-scale marina. Both projects received heavy doses of criticism from officials and residents, with concerns ranging from too-high buildings and reduced waterfront access to the elimination of one of Bath's last remaining sections of working waterfront. "It's definitely provoked a big discussion in Bath as to what the town is and where it's going," says Hall of public discussion about New Bathport.
Hall and Rogers' New Bathport proposal stemmed from what they say many Bath residents wanted. The buildings the pair have owned since 1996 on Commercial Street, which skirts the waterfront north of the Sagadahoc bridge, have been used as income properties for the past decade, with a handful of apartment units and some retail space. But after years of making costly repairs and refurbishments, Hall says he and Rogers figured further improvements weren't worth the money. Instead, they began exploring development options for the properties. "We looked at it from the perspective of people always talking about getting something happening on the waterfront of Bath," says Hall.
Similarly, Poliquin says his decision to remake the former Stinson Seafood cannery, which he purchased in March for an undisclosed amount, grew out of a desire to help Bath change with the times. Much like his hometown of Waterville, Bath's economy has been transitioning away from the industries that long supported the city. In Waterville, says Poliquin, it was shirts at the C.F. Hathaway factory and the paper companies across the river in Winslow. In Bath, it was the Stinson cannery, the boat building shops that used to line the waterfront and Bath Iron Works. And though BIW is still the city's largest employer, the trend at the shipyard has been attrition rather than growth. "The ship building industry is largely gone," says Poliquin. "So what do you do? How do you create a vibrant economic base?"
Hall and Rogers believe New Bathport, which is expected to soon pass muster with city councilors after four rounds of revisions, will deliver a spark to Bath's economy. For starters, they say, the current property is only generating about $17,000 a year in property taxes; New Bathport, by contrast, is expected to contribute roughly $225,000 a year to city coffers. Hall and Rogers also expect New Bathport to attract well-heeled buyers who will spend money in local stores.
Bruce Poliquin agrees that bringing more people into Bath's downtown ˆ or, in the case of his Stinson project, near downtown ˆ will benefit the city. And since retirees make up the biggest group that's moving to Bath, according to Upham and others, they aren't likely to create as much demand on the school system and other city services as younger families do. "The injection of those people and their capital would ripple throughout the town," says Poliquin. "To be stuck in the past just doesn't get you anywhere."
Saving room for industry
Bringing in outsiders with fat wallets may be one route to economic stability, but many residents and officials believe the city shouldn't ignore the power of industry. New companies, the thinking goes, will shore up the tax base while offering employment options to area residents. What's more, new business would help make Bath less reliant on Bath Iron Works, long the keystone of the city's economy.
Curt Fish, a developer and real estate broker at Sharon Drake Real Estate in Bath, says the city needs to include jobs in any economic planning. He and a partner recently formed Seguin Brothers LLC and are working to get city approval to build a housing complex on a 77-acre parcel of land on High Street. (See "Building brief" on page 28.) "Whenever the shipyard's reducing its workforce between contracts, people get nervous about jobs in Bath," he says. "But I think that nothing could improve the economic vitality of this town as much as diversity of employment."
To that end, Upham says the city is working on a number of projects to help attract business. For example, the city is marketing a vacant warehouse at its Wing Farm business park on the outskirts of town, and Upham hopes to lure a high-tech business to the site. What's more, the city council is in discussions to create a Pine Tree Development Zone, which would offer significant tax breaks to companies that add workers or expand.
Upham understands, however, that industry alone can't buoy the city. He applauds the New Bathport proposal because it would add vitality to the downtown area. That said, he doesn't support Poliquin's plan to build condos on what has historically been an industrial site. What's more, Upham believes it's better for residential development to happen in Bath's downtown area rather than upriver, where the Stinson site is located "If we're going to have this kind of development in Bath, we need to start at the center and work our way out," Upham says.
And as city planner, it's Upham's job to think about the likely outcome of any development proposal and relay that information to city councilors. How much of Upham's critiques are incorporated into the council's decisions is unclear, but New Bathport appears headed for approval while Poliquin's project is stuck in neutral after being rejected on more than one occasion by the Bath City Council. (Poliquin also suffered a setback when the cannery buildings were destroyed by an early May fire that fire officials have ruled arson. "I've got an expensive mess on my hands," says Poliquin, who adds that the property was uninsured against fire.)
But Poliquin hasn't given up on his plan to build condos at the Stinson cannery, even though he's spoken with some potential buyers for the site that would put it to industrial use. After all, he believes the cannery has had its last hurrah as a commercial site, and that it's time for a new approach. "The reality is the free market," says Poliquin. "Some of the best use of the downtown waterfront is to introduce a new community of residents who can live in the downtown of a small Maine city. And I hope that the governing bodies of that community would embrace that."
For his part, Upham doesn't embrace that line of thinking. In fact, he says Poliquin's presumption that he knows the best use for the property is "offensive." Still, Upham understands that plans like Poliquin's are inevitable, and that the back and forth between officials, residents and developers is all part of the landscape. "That's what a discussion about urban change is all about," Upham says.
But since the beginning of the year, a relative flood of development proposals has been submitted to Bath officials. The proposals have been almost exclusively residential, from upscale condominium projects on the waterfront to a 130-plus-unit housing development planned for a ridge southwest of Bath's bucolic downtown. "Nothing has happened here since the late 80s," says James Upham, Bath's city planner. "Suburban growth just hasn't happened here."
Recent proposals reflect more than just a cyclical housing boom. The plans signal change for the city on the banks of the Kennebec River, where the downtown stretch of waterfront is thinly developed with a small number of apartment buildings, retail shops and taverns. At least three condo proposals are on the table for land along the river, and developers have performed preliminary site work on another waterfront property, according to Upham. If approved, those projects will transform a waterfront that once hosted sardine canneries and boat building shops into a stretch of condos and stores. As the development proposals increase in frequency and scale, city officials face a difficult challenge: Where does Bath go from here?
John Hall and Ed Rogers, co-owners of J.R. Maxwell & Co., a restaurant on Front Street in downtown Bath, think they know. The pair is responsible for one of the development proposals being mulled by officials, the 24-unit, three-building New Bathport complex just steps from the Kennebec. And Hall and Rogers are betting that they won't have any trouble filling those units. "To me, this is the best waterfront condominium development in Maine," says Rogers.
But with condo prices at New Bathport expected to start at about $650,000, Hall and Rogers aren't banking solely on water views to bring in potential buyers. Instead, the pair is betting they can tap into the increasing number of retirees and empty nesters that many say are picking Bath as a place to relocate.
Yet there's no guarantee any of the development proposals will ever amount to anything more than a site plan filed away in Upham's office. That's because officials ˆ as well as some residents ˆ are reluctant to hand the keys to developers who could quickly transform the city's compact downtown. As a result, officials have kept a tight rein on recent development proposals, asking for revisions to some and outright refusing others.
Living by the river
The bulk of recent debate has centered around two controversial projects ˆ New Bathport and a proposal from Bruce Poliquin, a developer from Yarmouth who wants to remake the former Stinson Seafood sardine cannery just upriver from downtown Bath into a 40-unit condo complex and full-scale marina. Both projects received heavy doses of criticism from officials and residents, with concerns ranging from too-high buildings and reduced waterfront access to the elimination of one of Bath's last remaining sections of working waterfront. "It's definitely provoked a big discussion in Bath as to what the town is and where it's going," says Hall of public discussion about New Bathport.
Hall and Rogers' New Bathport proposal stemmed from what they say many Bath residents wanted. The buildings the pair have owned since 1996 on Commercial Street, which skirts the waterfront north of the Sagadahoc bridge, have been used as income properties for the past decade, with a handful of apartment units and some retail space. But after years of making costly repairs and refurbishments, Hall says he and Rogers figured further improvements weren't worth the money. Instead, they began exploring development options for the properties. "We looked at it from the perspective of people always talking about getting something happening on the waterfront of Bath," says Hall.
Similarly, Poliquin says his decision to remake the former Stinson Seafood cannery, which he purchased in March for an undisclosed amount, grew out of a desire to help Bath change with the times. Much like his hometown of Waterville, Bath's economy has been transitioning away from the industries that long supported the city. In Waterville, says Poliquin, it was shirts at the C.F. Hathaway factory and the paper companies across the river in Winslow. In Bath, it was the Stinson cannery, the boat building shops that used to line the waterfront and Bath Iron Works. And though BIW is still the city's largest employer, the trend at the shipyard has been attrition rather than growth. "The ship building industry is largely gone," says Poliquin. "So what do you do? How do you create a vibrant economic base?"
Hall and Rogers believe New Bathport, which is expected to soon pass muster with city councilors after four rounds of revisions, will deliver a spark to Bath's economy. For starters, they say, the current property is only generating about $17,000 a year in property taxes; New Bathport, by contrast, is expected to contribute roughly $225,000 a year to city coffers. Hall and Rogers also expect New Bathport to attract well-heeled buyers who will spend money in local stores.
Bruce Poliquin agrees that bringing more people into Bath's downtown ˆ or, in the case of his Stinson project, near downtown ˆ will benefit the city. And since retirees make up the biggest group that's moving to Bath, according to Upham and others, they aren't likely to create as much demand on the school system and other city services as younger families do. "The injection of those people and their capital would ripple throughout the town," says Poliquin. "To be stuck in the past just doesn't get you anywhere."
Saving room for industry
Bringing in outsiders with fat wallets may be one route to economic stability, but many residents and officials believe the city shouldn't ignore the power of industry. New companies, the thinking goes, will shore up the tax base while offering employment options to area residents. What's more, new business would help make Bath less reliant on Bath Iron Works, long the keystone of the city's economy.
Curt Fish, a developer and real estate broker at Sharon Drake Real Estate in Bath, says the city needs to include jobs in any economic planning. He and a partner recently formed Seguin Brothers LLC and are working to get city approval to build a housing complex on a 77-acre parcel of land on High Street. (See "Building brief" on page 28.) "Whenever the shipyard's reducing its workforce between contracts, people get nervous about jobs in Bath," he says. "But I think that nothing could improve the economic vitality of this town as much as diversity of employment."
To that end, Upham says the city is working on a number of projects to help attract business. For example, the city is marketing a vacant warehouse at its Wing Farm business park on the outskirts of town, and Upham hopes to lure a high-tech business to the site. What's more, the city council is in discussions to create a Pine Tree Development Zone, which would offer significant tax breaks to companies that add workers or expand.
Upham understands, however, that industry alone can't buoy the city. He applauds the New Bathport proposal because it would add vitality to the downtown area. That said, he doesn't support Poliquin's plan to build condos on what has historically been an industrial site. What's more, Upham believes it's better for residential development to happen in Bath's downtown area rather than upriver, where the Stinson site is located "If we're going to have this kind of development in Bath, we need to start at the center and work our way out," Upham says.
And as city planner, it's Upham's job to think about the likely outcome of any development proposal and relay that information to city councilors. How much of Upham's critiques are incorporated into the council's decisions is unclear, but New Bathport appears headed for approval while Poliquin's project is stuck in neutral after being rejected on more than one occasion by the Bath City Council. (Poliquin also suffered a setback when the cannery buildings were destroyed by an early May fire that fire officials have ruled arson. "I've got an expensive mess on my hands," says Poliquin, who adds that the property was uninsured against fire.)
But Poliquin hasn't given up on his plan to build condos at the Stinson cannery, even though he's spoken with some potential buyers for the site that would put it to industrial use. After all, he believes the cannery has had its last hurrah as a commercial site, and that it's time for a new approach. "The reality is the free market," says Poliquin. "Some of the best use of the downtown waterfront is to introduce a new community of residents who can live in the downtown of a small Maine city. And I hope that the governing bodies of that community would embrace that."
For his part, Upham doesn't embrace that line of thinking. In fact, he says Poliquin's presumption that he knows the best use for the property is "offensive." Still, Upham understands that plans like Poliquin's are inevitable, and that the back and forth between officials, residents and developers is all part of the landscape. "That's what a discussion about urban change is all about," Upham says.
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