Great Diamond Island hotel could get green light
Rendering/Courtesy Archetype PA
Developers are optimistic the Portland Planning Board will give final approval to the Diamond Island Hotel sometime this spring. The project calls for the construction of 20 condominium units at Building 46 of the Fort McKinley historic site.
Photo/Jane Laughlin
The Herbert Bailey Cottage, built in 1892 and designed by architect John Calvin Stevens, is representative of cottages found on Great Diamond Island. Island residents hope the proposed hotel project at Fort McKinley will not disrupt their community.
A controversial proposal to build an $8.5 million "hotelminium" complex on Great Diamond Island took another step toward possible final approval following a recent city planning board workshop. City Planner Rick Nolan said the project that would create 20 condominium units at the historic Fort McKinley will now be scheduled for a public hearing later this spring.
"If the project meets all the appropriate criteria supposedly the planning board could vote on it and approve it," Nolan said.
The Inn at Diamond Cove LLC is seeking a contract zone to convert the former barracks and hospital at Fort McKinley into 20 condominiums. The 100-plus-year-old structures, which served as the coastal headquarters for the defense of Portland Harbor until the end World War II, have fallen into disrepair and are on the National Register of Historic Places. The condominiums would be part of the Diamond Cove luxury community, which was built in the 1990s.
The project's developers, including David Bateman, one of Diamond Cove's original developers, have an agreement to buy the city-owned buildings for $1 if they can win city approval for the project. Bateman, who serves as president of Bateman Partners LLC in Portland, says the proposed hotel would be located in Building 46 of the Army fort on the northern side of the island.
If approved this spring, Bateman says construction would begin this summer and the year-long project would create 50 full-time construction jobs. Another 10 to 15 part-time seasonal staff would work at the hotel.
Most of the units would have bedrooms that could be rented out as hotel rooms. Those rooms would have bathrooms and the complex would have a full-time hotel staff. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Hart Hotels Inc., which manages the Portland Harbor Hotel, would also manage the hotelminium complex. The owners and management team of the Portland Harbor Hotel and all of the condominium purchasers would be automatically enrolled in a rental program, Bateman says.
The project would entice visitors to the Portland area by improving access to the Casco Bay islands, Bateman says. Instead of having to rent a seasonal property on Great Diamond Island for a minimum of six days and seven nights, visitors could stay at the proposed hotelminium for just one night. Hotel guests could take a Casco Bay ferry to the island and enjoy dinner at the Diamond Edge restaurant "without worrying about whether they can catch the last ferry back to the city," Bateman says.
The project would also provide some property tax revenue for the city of Portland. Bateman in 2008 told Mainebiz the project would generate $60,000 a year in tax revenues. The 20 proposed units would also increase the number of homes on the island to 128, which may lower homeowner assessments, Bateman says.
To date, the project has received a conditional rezoning approval for the site from the Portland City Council and an overboard wastewater discharge permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Nolan says. Bateman is hoping for final approval soon.
But there is at least one legal hurdle that remains.
The Friends of Great Diamond Island LLC, a group of residents opposed to the project, filed a law suit against the Inn at Diamond Cove LLC in 2008 in Cumberland County Superior Court in Portland. The case is still pending after it was transferred to the Business and Consumer Docket court in West Bath, according to the court clerk's office.
Nolan says there are also many island residents who support the project. For instance, Richard Molyneux, a resident of Diamond Cove, wrote a letter dated Jan. 15 in favor of the project, saying a majority of Diamond Cove homeowners who voted three years ago also support the hotelminium.
Nancy Gleason and her husband, Paul, have owned a home on Great Diamond Island for 33 years and upon retirement have made their summer cottage their permanent residence the last three years. She is hoping the city, the island community and the developer will strike the right balance before the project is approved.
The association is comprised of 70 cottage owners and has never opposed the proposed hotel as long as it does not negatively impact the quality of life residents have come to enjoy on the southern side of the island. The cottage community was founded in 1882 as Victorian summer homes, Gleason says.
The association has asked the Planning Board and the developer to produce a transportation plan that calls for any construction workers, hotel staff and all guests to arrive and depart the proposed project via the Diamond Cove pier. The group also wants any solid waste produced by the inn to be transported off the island and not stored on site for any period of time, Gleason says.
"Our main concern is that we experience no adverse effect from increased traffic," she says.
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