Pierce Atwood move could usher in changes for waterfront development
A proposal by a Portland law firm to move into a five-story waterfront building on Commercial Street in 2011 may provide waterfront property owners with some momentum in their quest to get the city to approve central zoning changes designed to spur commercial growth.
Pierce Atwood announced earlier this month it wants to move the firm's 175 employees from its current offices on Monument Square to the 100,000-square-foot Cumberland Self-Storage building located at 258 Commercial St. when the law firm's lease expires in March 2011. The company is also seeking a $2.7 million tax increment financing agreement from the city to offset anticipated renovation costs if the company moves forward with leasing the building from Waterfront Marine.
The building is located on a wharf adjacent to the Portland Fish Pier and is currently occupied by Cumberland Self-Storage.
"What they're proposing is entirely legal as it stands," says Dick Ingalls, one of 12 waterfront property owners who approached the city with proposed zoning ordinance changes earlier this year.
Ingalls says he and other waterfront property owners successfully got the city to allow the upper floors of the brick building to be available for non-fish harvesting businesses. Pierce Atwood's proposal could serve as an example of how new commercial business can co-exist with marine businesses in the central waterfront zone, which encompasses 50 acres between the Maine State Pier and the International Marine Terminal.
The city already has other examples of commercial businesses that were allowed to locate within the central waterfront zone when zoning ordinances were relaxed in 1987, according to Ingalls. Chief among them is DiMillo's floating restaurant and Becky's Diner, he says.
Ingalls, Steve DiMillo, the restaurant's owner, and Charlie Poole, owner of Union Wharf, have led the latest effort to relax zoning ordinances that are designed to preserve Portland's groundfishing industry. They are proposing that 50% of ground floors of existing buildings within the affected zone be available for any tenant and 50% of berthing space be available for recreational boats.
They also want the city to remove requirements that pier owners provide parking space on the piers for new developments and businesses. But the existing ban on hotels and condominium projects would still be in force.
The Portland Planning Board held a workshop to discuss proposed waterfront zoning changes on May 11 following two well-attended public hearings in March.
DiMillo says the city council could vote on the re-zoning for the central waterfront zone in June and the timing of the Pierce Atwood project couldn't be better. "We think it's a positive step for our efforts," he says.
DiMillo says Pierce Atwood's decision serves as another example that interest among businesses to locate on the waterfront is growing. Should the city council approve the zoning changes he and the others have sought, more non-marine businesses looking to relocate there won't be far behind, he says.
While Union Wharf has marine and other businesses, it's the non-marine operations that make it possible to operate and maintain the wharf, says Poole. He was able to lease out the upper floors of Union Wharf's buildings to businesses such as engineering and architectural firms after the five-year referendum passed by city voters in 1988 to ban condominium construction on the waterfront expired in January 1993.
The additional income he receives from his non-marine business tenants as well as the rental income he gets from marine businesses such as Cozy Harbor Seafood, Maine Spill Response Corp. and the Portland Pilots have enabled him to maintain Union Wharf, he says.
"Over the last 15 years, we have rebuilt the entire apron of this pier," Poole says. "Union Wharf is a model that shows this does work."
Greg Mitchell, Portland's economic development director, says the Pierce Atwood project is on a fast track to be approved so actual construction at the site could begin as soon as this summer.
"They've already applied for planning board approval and filed the application," Mitchell says.
He also believes the Pierce Atwood project could be a game changer in the city's long-standing waterfront debate. People who have long viewed the five-story brick building as a symbol of waterfront neglect could end up seeing it as a model for future mixed-use development, he says.
The TIF the city's community development committee approved for the law firm that ultimately needs city council backing will help the developer defray some of the project renovation costs, but this project still represents a much greater investment for Pierce Atwood than if the law firm chose to build a new building in South Portland, he added.
According to documents filed with the community development committee, developer Waterfront Marine plans to spend $250,000 for improvements to the wharf and $1.4 million to improve the ground floor of the building for marine use and public access to the water.
Renderings submitted by Winton Scott Architects show the exterior of the five-story brick structure intact with several lobster boats and other fishing vessels tied up to the renovated docks.
The documents also include the TIF proposal, which calls for Waterfront Maine to pay just over 50% of the property taxes it would normally pay the city over the next 20 years based on the property's increased value. The taxes would be capped at $2.9 million and the city would receive $2.7 million in new taxes over those 20 years.
The property's taxable value is now $950,000, and the owner pays less than $17,000 a year in taxes, according to city documents. If approved, the city would lease 70 of the 165 parking spaces to Waterfront Marine on the nearby Portland Fish Pier at the current market rate of $80 per month over the next 10 years.
The city council plans to make a final vote on the TIF proposal June 7, following a public hearing.
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