If it becomes Maine’s tallest building as expected, an 18-story apartment tower to be built in downtown Portland would claim a title that hasn’t changed hands in over half a century.
Or, depending on the measuring stick, the “tallest” distinction could remain with a structure in Lewiston that’s held it since 1890.
One thing is clear: Redfern Properties’ proposed 190-foot building at 200 Federal St., Portland, would be the first new high-rise to rise anywhere in Maine for over a decade.
Landry/French Construction, based in Scarborough, has agreed to serve as construction manager, the firm’s CEO, Kevin French, and Redfern principal Jonathan Culley told Mainebiz. Landry/French is currently screening subcontractors and expects to have them signed on over the next 30 to 60 days.
But before shovels go in the ground, the $50 million project needs a city zoning amendment, which the Portland City Council is scheduled to vote upon Monday evening. The change would allow the top 40 feet of the building to be used for residences and other purposes. Current rules allow a structure of 190 feet, but only permit the top to be an “architectural cap,” containing mechanical equipment or to enhance design.
The amendment and an accompanying technical one were introduced March 1 after receiving unanimous recommendation from the Portland Planning Board.
The city’s Historic Preservation Board must also weigh in on the project, since the site, currently a plaza and parking lot behind a Congress Street post office, lies within a historic district. The board recently workshopped the proposal, and may take it up again at a hearing in April.
In addition, the project requires site plan approval from the Planning Board. And Culley said Redfern still needs to obtain financing from a mix of lenders and equity investors. But if all the green lights and greenbacks come in, Landry/French would break ground in September or October, and finish construction by the end of 2023.
When topped off, 200 Federal St. would contain 263 studio, one- and two-bedrooms apartments, primarily market-rate, with rents between $1,200 and $2,200, according to Culley. There also would be two ground-floor commercial spaces, 180,000 square feet of space overall, and an 18th-floor “sky lounge” for residents with views he described as “phenomenal.”
Not ‘ego-driven’
The building would rise 15 feet higher than another Portland apartment complex, Franklin Towers, which was built in 1969 and still reigns as the state’s tallest building when architectural caps such as spires aren’t included in the measurement.
The new title-holder would also be taller than 172-foot Back Bay Tower, downtown’s last high-rise, built in 1997. Two Hundred Federal St. would dwarf Portland’s only tall building to go up in the 21st century, 84 Marginal Way in the Bayside neighborhood. Constructed in 2008, that building — the headquarters of medical practice InterMed P.A. — has 10 stories and is 135 feet high.
Many other tall buildings in Maine are religious and civic structures, some of which predate the modern high-rise.
The state’s tallest building, from the ground to the top of its 220-foot spire, was built in 1890 as St. Patrick’s Church in Lewiston. Today the building serves as an event center. The second-tallest building, steps away from Franklin Towers in Portland, is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, which is 204 feet high and 152 years old.
But while 200 Federal may establish new records in Maine, that’s not what Culley is after.
“We have not set out to build a tall building, or the tallest building,” he said in an interview. “It’s not ego-driven. We’re simply trying to create viable housing that will enhance our community.”
The building’s planned height is what’s necessary to make it economically feasible, according to Culley. While there will be 27 units of workforce housing, most apartments will be geared toward Portlanders with mid-level incomes.
“This isn’t luxury housing, nor is it affordable housing,” Culley said. “It fits right in the middle. It is important to create a range of housing so that we have a healthy housing ecosystem.”
The demand for such housing in Portland will continue, despite the pandemic and the national migration it’s spurred to rural areas, he believes.
“Not everyone is going to live in the country. There’s been a 20-year trend in people moving from the suburbs to the city, and I think it’s very unlikely in the long term that COVID is going to change that trend,” Culley said. “We’re very confident that there’s ample demand in Portland, and demand for this type of housing, and it’s only getting to get greater.
“Living in cities is healthy, and one of the most important things we can do to reduce our carbon footprint. I don’t see COVID changing the trajectory of growth for urban neighborhoods.”
Competition in the clouds
Portland-based Redfern isn’t the first developer to reach for the sky in the city.
In 2019, Tim Soley of East Brown Cow Management Inc. floated a zoning amendment that would have allowed a building of 20 to 25 stories on the site of surface parking lot in Portland’s Old Port District. That proposal has stalled for now. In 2014, a proposal to build several 14-story mixed-use buildings in Bayside halted after a neighborhood group sued the city and the city sued the Florida developer, Federated Cos.
In 2009, New York developer John Cacoulidis even proposed a 30-story high-rise on Congress Street, in a vacant building next to City Hall. That plan never got off the ground.
However, there seems to be interest in a new try. A popular online forum devoted to architecture in Boston and New England, archBoston.com, has an active thread going on the Federal Street project that has attracted over 13,000 views. And there’s even a Facebook group called “Portland Maine Needs Some Tall Buildings.”
Cities large and small appear to be moving cloudward, not only in search of more marketable space, but as a way of branding themselves, experts say.
“Developers all over the world are either re-creating skylines or offering new views of them,” an industry publication, BISNow, wrote in 2018. “Having a more prominent skyline also tends to make the metro more attractive to tech firms and the millennials they are trying to attract.”
Even with the addition of 200 Federal, Portland and Maine in general will have plenty of competition. Currently, Franklin Towers, the 52-year-old, 175-foot apartment complex, ranks as one of the country’s shortest tall buildings of any state. Only the “tallests” in South Dakota, Wyoming and Vermont are shorter.
