Thompson's Point in Portland secures app and Web developer as first office tenant
Image / Courtesy of Thompson's Point
Big Room Studios will join the Circus Conservatory of America and Color Me Mine in Brick North, otherwise known as Building No. 7. Cellardoor Winery and the International Cryptozoology Museum will be located in the adjacent Building No. 8, where a brewery, distillery and bakery are also being planned.
Adding to its growing and diverse base of tenants, the owners of the 30-acre Thompson's Point redevelopment project in Portland have signed its first office tenant.
Big Room Studios, a Portland-based app and Web developer, will move into a 3,000-square-foot-space in Thompson's Point's roughly 36,000-square-foot Brick North building, Chris Thompson, one of the principals overseeing the development, told Mainebiz on Monday. According to Big Room's website, the company employs 17 people including its two co-founders.
The company's planned Sept. 1 move-in date will mark the redevelopment project's first office-based tenant, Thompson said. Current tenants like the Circus Conservatory of America and Open Bench Project have office space, but they also have other kinds of space -- performance and workshop space, respectively -- to suit their own needs. Thompson said he and his partners at Forefront Partners are currently talking to a number of new and potential tenants.
Big Room's decision to end its lease at 30 Danforth St. and move away from Portland's vibrant Old Port district shows the company's willingness to take a bet on the former industrial site as an emerging creative hub for the city. Thompson's Point is separated from Portland's downtown peninsula by Interstate 295 and located along the Fore River.
"Relocating to Thompson's Point is the kind of forward-looking action that typifies our willingness to do as Wayne Gretzky recommends and ‘skate to where the puck is going to be,'" Sam Mateosian, Big Room co-founder, said in a statement. "We believe in bold steps and are always willing to take bets on young technology, projects and people who show exceptional promise. To that end, we are excited to be in on the ground floor of one of the most creative and novel developments in Portland's history.”
Big Room "designs and builds distinctive brands, apps, games, sites, and solutions," having worked with a wide range of clients, from startups like NextWorth to large corporate brands like Target, according to its website. The company was founded in 2002.
Thompson said Big Room's addition will help support the project's goal of attracting a diverse pool of businesses and organizations. "That's been a goal: to create the sense of Thompson's Point being a neighborhood where a lot of different users exist and feed into each other," he said. "To have folks like Big Room Studios, it helps bring that vision to life."
Landing the Circus Conservatory as one of Thompson's Point's first tenants was widely viewed as a first step in that direction, but the project has since attracted other tenants and partnerships, including State Theatre, which is holding a few outdoor concerts at Thompson's Point this year. Thompson's Point has also attracted Lincolnville-based Cellardoor Winery, which plans to open a tasting room and retail space there, and the owner of Portland's Slab restaurant and Nosh Kitchen Bar, who plans to open a clam shack. Both plan to open in spring 2016.
Thompson pointed out that the International Cryptozoology Museum, which has been a cultural staple on Congress Street for years, also plans to move onto Thompson's Point by spring 2016, joining Celladoor Winery and a brewery and distillery that are finalizing leases for space in the same building (Thompson declined to name them because leases haven't yet been finalized).
"Our vision for The Point is to become the hub for creative energy and visionary entrepreneurship that’s not only thriving, but burning white hot in Maine,” he said. “Having Big Room Studios on our property in the building we refer to as Brick North is a tremendous addition to the neighborhood of great businesses and place-makers we are creating. We so look forward to having them with us.”
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