MaineHealth buys Portland's Union Station Plaza for $16.8 million

Alexis Wells MaineHealth announced plans to buy Portland's Union Station Plaza for $16.8 million as a long-term investment in the neighborhood where Maine Medical Center is located

Write a Comment

By Renee Cordes

MaineHealth on Thursday announced that it has purchased Portland's Union Station Plaza for $16.8 million as a long-term investment in the neighborhood where Maine Medical Center is located.

The buyer said it has no plans to develop the property, purchased from the Union Station LMT Partnership, at this time.

The acquisition will help position MaineHealth and its flagship hospital, Maine Medical Center, to continue to meet the region’s dynamic and growing health care needs, MaineHealth said in a news release.

The plaza borders Maine Med's new employee garage and the office building at 222 St. John St., which the hospital has leased long-term. The cost of the acquisition is offset by the property's revenue-generating commercial leases.

“This was a unique opportunity that we could not ignore," said Jeff Sanders, MaineHealth's southern region president. "This allows us to consider a very long-term approach to meeting the health needs of our community and helps ensure the viability of the investments we have already made in that area.

“We understand and respect the significance the property and tenant businesses have to the neighborhood and city, and we intend to honor the business leases currently in place.”

Union Station Plaza is adjacent to a special zoning designation that Maine Medical Center created in collaboration with, and approved by, the city.

Bob Connor, former owner of the Union Station Plaza, said his company had received a number of offers before listing the property for sale.

"I’ve owned the property for 30 years, and finding the right buyer was important to me,” he said. "In MaineHealth, we had a local buyer with a positive impact on our community and a vision for the future that benefits all Mainers. I am pleased that I could work with MaineHealth, Gendron Commercial and Malone Commercial Brokers to complete this transaction.”

MaineHealth is nearing the finish line on a multi-year undertaking to modernize and expand Maine Medical Center's Bramhall campus.

Construction continues on the Malone Family Tower on Congress Street, which makes up the largest portion of the project. The tower, scheduled for completion in early 2024, will add 96 new patient rooms, a new sterile processing facility and 19 state-of-the art procedure rooms.

The tower replaces the hospital’s old employee parking garage, which had reached the end of its useful life and was moved to St. John Street following comprehensive discussions with city leaders and neighbors.

Expansion of the Coulombe Family Tower, completed in December 2019, added 64 new patient rooms, which proved critical in the hospital's ability to admit more patients during the early days of the pandemic.

Maine Medical Center also added to its patient and visitor parking garage, increasing the number of available spaces, and constructed the Sisters Heliport, to better serve seriously injured or ill patients arriving by medical helicopter.