Portland's real estate crunch is a golden opportunity for Westbrook, Gorham
Photo / Tim Greenway
Westbrook Mayor Colleen Hilton on the deck of Ethos Marketing and Design, which overlooks the Presumpscot River.
Photo / Tim Greenway
Tom Ellsworth, economic development director for Gorham, says the town is affordable and easily accessible to Portland.
With shortages of commercial and residential real estate in Portland pushing up prices, two nearby communities, Westbrook and Gorham, are seeing strong growth in population, along with an influx of businesses and families seeking affordability.
Helping the two towns is their proximity to I-95 and the Portland International Jetport. Gorham's population is up 43.5% from 1990 to 2015, while Westbrook's is up almost 11% since 2000, besting Portland's nearly 4% rise, according to City-Data.com. While it may be too early to call the trend urban sprawl from Portland, William Baker, Westbrook's former business and community relations head and currently a consultant for the mayor's office, says that is in the city's future.
“It's not urban sprawl yet. We're poised to have that happen because of Portland's increasing rents and its permitting and inspection [processes],” he says, noting that such approvals take longer in Portland and typically are more complicated. “We've had some independent success in people moving in. Our goal is more than to be the beneficiary of urban sprawl. Moving 100 jobs from Portland to Westbrook isn't real economic development.”
Baker says he'd rather draw companies like Pika Energy and ones from out of state that create local jobs.
Westbrook native and Mayor Colleen Hilton says people are discovering her city, which is seven miles west of Portland, or about a 17-minute drive. “We have so much going on that we have to manage it,” she says of the city's many development projects and growth.
The nearby town of Gorham, which is just a bit over 12 miles west of Portland and about a 25-minute drive, is facing much of the same challenges to manage growth and assure there are enough teachers and people in the fire and police departments.
“The 65% rise in population from 1990 to 2010 is from people raising families who want a more suburban location and good school system,” says Thomas Ellsworth, president of Gorham Economic Development Corp. “We are priced under Scarborough and Falmouth and are a good, affordable community close to Portland and close to their jobs. Twenty years ago they might have considered us to be out of the way.”
He adds: “There are more people looking for apartments now than there are apartments to rent.” In addition, he argues, Portland's high tax rate and housing prices are driving more people into suburban areas.
Likewise, there's not a lot of industrial inventory available right now, he says.
The vacancy rate in Gorham is 5.9%, in Portland 3.9% and in Westbrook 2.3%, according to NAI The Dunham Group's Greater Portland Industrial Market Survey 2016, which inventoried 545 industrial properties in seven cities and towns. Demand continues to outpace supply, so lease rates have increased, the real estate company found. Gorham averages $4.50 per square foot, Westbrook $5.75 per square foot and Portland $5.99 per square foot.
Neither Ellsworth nor Hilton had statistics on how many people or businesses have moved to their area from Portland, but both noted that people come from elsewhere as well to be close to Portland.
Reeling in businesses
In the past few years Westbrook has attracted a number of businesses in the health care, technology and food businesses, as well as low-cost housing and other real estate developers.
Among them are Mast Landing Brewery, Schlotterbeck & Foss, Black Dinah Chocolatiers and soon the Brealu Café, which is moving following a fire at its Portland location on Forest Avenue. Other food companies in the area include Catbird Creamery, Papou's Kitchen, Al's Pals, Union Bagel, North Spore, Rosen's Full Belly Deli, the Frog & Turtle gastropub and Haven's Candies.
Steve Shaffer, owner of Black Dinah with his wife Kate, said the company was looking at Portland to relocate its Isle au Haut-based company, mainly to improve shipping and other logistics.
“But places weren't priced right and there was a huge amount of effort in the permitting process. It would have added months and months to the [move],” Shaffer says.
He says the company issued a press release saying it wanted to move to southern Maine, and Baker from Westbrook contacted him.
“I liked what was happening in the downtown area,” Shaffer says. “We were permitted in a week. Our location required rezoning, and the planning board walked us through it. They made the process really easy.” He adds that having other food businesses in the area with similar mindsets also helps.
The company now operates out of 4,250 square feet and has a storefront near Westbrook's downtown waterfront. The only drawback, Shaffer says, is all the construction underway in the city has caused the store parking lot to be shut for several months.
He also had to consider a couple employees who moved with the company. “We didn't want to make their commute bad.” Shaffer lives in Portland's Munjoy Hill and commutes to Westbrook. “The bus comes right down here,” he says.
But the growth hasn't all come with total community buy-in. Some objected to open fields being developed by Risbara Brothers Construction into one of the largest housing development projects in Greater Portland. Some 200 housing units are in the works and 300 more are planned. The Scarborough-based company has already built 53 house lots at Blue Spruce Farm in Westbrook, with nine lots still available, as well as nine apartment buildings with a total of 98 units and future development for a potential 32 condos.
“We now have big apartments where there were fields,” says Mayor Hilton, who says the town itself is buying property to keep as green space. She says some people have complained about the development, but she says it will look greener once the landscaping is done. She says the development is consistent with the city's 2012 comprehensive plan.
Also in the works is an additional 94 apartments at Springbrook Center for Health Care & Rehabilitation Nursing Home, a memory care facility with 30 units. “The apartments are for the elderly to age in place,” Hilton says.
Also in the works is Dirigo Plaza across from Kohl's, whose first tenant will be a Walmart. Part of the property will involve turning a quarry into a pond and putting trails around it.
The mayor notes that the community did actively plan for a change when its major employer, Sappi North America, stopped making paper and now has an active research arm at the Westbrook location.
“We did a good job of attracting businesses,” she says. One mechanism is tax increment financing. The city extended a TIF to persuade Olympia Sports to keep its headquarters in Westbrook after the company considered moving to New Jersey.
Plus, the city, Friends of the Presumpscot and Sappi settled a 20-year court battle over removing dams and building fish ladders. Phase II of the removal project has been pushed out until May 2018, Baker adds, at which time he expects an urban white water park to be located at Saccarappa Falls in the downtown area. And the city is using TV ads and its website to shuck its image as an old paper industry town and focus on its assets, like the Presumpscot River.
Baker doesn't see direct competition with Gorham because Westbrook is closer to Portland and shares important infrastructure like the METRO bus and has public sewer in commercial areas, “a clear advantage over Gorham. Portland has the oceanfront as a competitive advantage.”
Big deals boost Gorham
The Presumpscot River also is a development possibility for Gorham, as it runs from Sebago Lake to Casco Bay through Standish, Windham, Gorham, Westbrook, Portland and Falmouth, and has the potential to become a long greenway.
The Shaw Brothers Family Foundation, which owns a large piece of land abutting the river, is planning a potential greenway, Ellsworth says. “I'm sure this will find its way into the comprehensive plan,” he adds. Gorham's 2016 comprehensive plan draft will soon go out to residents for review.
Part of the Shaw Brothers land also will be leased to Sebago Brewing, which is moving from a smaller, nearby headquarters in Gorham Industrial Park. It is seeking approval to construct its new corporate headquarters, manufacturing and warehouse space, a brewery, restaurant and event center on lower Main Street (Route 25) in Gorham. The plan is for Sebago Brewing to almost double its space in the new, 21,000-square-foot facility, and closer to Sebago's distributor, Nappi Distributors.
“If [a town] gets a deal like Sebago Brewing once a year or once every two years, it is doing well,” says Ellsworth. Gorham has had three big deals in the past year, with the two others being Woods Excavating and Thirsty Turf Irrigation Inc.
Sebago Brewing may also get a TIF with town approval that would give it 50% back on its taxes over 12 years, Ellsworth says. That will help offset the brewery's investment to bring in water, sewer and other infrastructure.
The town also offers incentives such as a revolving loan program that uses its share of the TIF funds to lend money to businesses, such as a $5,000 loan interest free for up to five years for local businesses in the downtown to replace their signs.
Gorham also has its share of farmland, and new crops have moved in, notably, the 12 medical marijuana growers. “It will be a big new industry here if it ever gets legalized in this state,” Ellsworth says. “Right now, they can't keep it in stock.”
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