🔒Building Business: Gorham events center will have capacity for 400

The charitable arm of Gorham-based Shaw Brothers Construction is developing a 9,600-square-foot events venue at 602 Main St., also Route 25, in Gorham, targeting a fall opening. Originally conceived to provide a year-round indoor venue for the town’s farmers’ market, Cherry Hill Place promises to be a state-of-the-art venue for weddings and larger events. The structure is being built by Gorham’s own Affordable Builders and will replicate a historic stone-faced barn. Isaac Labbe Masonry, based in Standish, is applying the stone cladding. An attached silo, being built by Limington-based Birds Eye View Construction, will house some of the center’s extensive mechanical systems — not grain for cows. The building’s soaring interior is authentic post-and-beam construction, erected by Arundel-based R.A. Krouse, with 60-foot-long Douglas fir beams harvested in Washington state and then shipped to Quebec to be kiln-dried. The venue will be fully climate controlled and energy-efficient, with radiant heat and air conditioning. A large commercial kitchen is being built out, and a complete audio and video system will facilitate music and presentations. Lewiston’s Custom Metal Roofers and Maine Roofing, based in South Portland, are topping off most of the building, save for the silo and a cupola which are being clad in copper by a team from Buxton-based Daniel T. Allen Roofing & Sheet Metal. Shaw Brothers Construction, with a staff of more than 250, is headquartered on 100 acres in town, owns multiple quarries in the region, and a solar farm on Tory Hill in Buxton.

Construction news from around the state

Developers Collaborative’s housing project for Bath Iron Works, at 150 Congress Ave. in Bath, is fully framed and roughed in, ahead of an anticipated April 2027 completion date. The Ways, as it will be known, will provide 84 market-rate apartments — a mix of studios and one- and two-bedroom units — primarily for rent to shipbuilders and Navy personnel. South Portland-based Optimum Construction is the project contractor. PM Construction, based in Saco, is renovating a total of 58 apartments across 12 buildings in Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood for the Portland Housing Authority. The multi-phase project is designed to improve building performance and includes envelope upgrades, egress window installation, improved ventilation for attic spaces and new multi-story entry stairs and decks. The team includes Cumberland-based Sevee & Maher Engineers and CWS Architecture & Interior Design, based in Scarborough.