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December 16, 2008

Vote set for Maine State Pier project

By Whit Richardson

At a workshop yesterday, Portland's city councilors informally agreed to open negotiations with Portsmouth-based Ocean Properties on the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the Maine State Pier. At the workshop, the nine councilors debated three options presented by the city manager's office for moving forward with the redevelopment of the pier and chose to move ahead with Ocean Properties, who last year lost the bid for the development project to local competitor The Olympia Cos. The city council scheduled a formal vote on the matter next month, according to city spokesperson Nicole Clegg. There is still no word on whether the city will sue the state over the disputed land beneath the pier.

The Portland City Council voted a month ago to scrap negotiations with Portland-based The Olympia Cos., who were unwilling to move forward with due diligence work on their $100 million project until a dispute over ownership of the land beneath the pier was settled between the state and city. Ocean Properties says the dispute will not hinder its development plans for the pier, which include a luxury hotel, office building, underground parking garage, public park, a fish and produce co-op and a cruise ship terminal

While the city has threatened to sue the state over the dispute, no lawsuit has yet been filed, according to the city's corporation counsel's office. Gary Wood, Portland's city attorney, recently told Mainebiz that he believes the city should seek a resolution to the dispute in court, and that he believes the city could win. "My advice is to settle it once and for all," he said. (For more on the repercussions of the dispute over the land beneath the pier, read "Submerged" in the current issue of Mainebiz.)

City Manager Joseph Gray says the council will likely take up that issue after the first of the year. And while the corporation counsel will make a recommendation on whether to file a lawsuit, the decision ultimately lies with the council.

The city council did have other options to pursue with the Maine State Pier. City Manager Joseph Gray sent a memo to the city council on Friday presenting three options for moving ahead with the pier project. The two options besides reopening negotiations with Ocean Properties were to have the city hold a second round of competitive bidding from developers or have the city draw up its own plans for the pier and then find a developer to build it, according to a memo obtained by Mainebiz. Gray says, however, that in the circumstances reopening negotiations with Ocean Properties is the best choice. "This is a company that has a proven track record to carry though on development, not only here in Maine, but throughout the United States and Canada," Gray told Mainebiz today. "Given the economic climate and given that they are willing to sit down and negotiate, we should take advantage of it."

Dory Waxman, a new city councilor, also said at the council workshop that she would not recuse herself from the decision to work with Ocean Properties on the Maine State Pier even though she was a paid community organizer for the company last year when it was competing against The Olympia Cos. for the project, according to local news website The Bollard.

 

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