Courtesy / Gulf of Maine Research Institute
The wharf is considered an important piece of working waterfront, home to fishing boats and marine-related businesses
November 16, 2021
With Union Wharf's sale to nonprofit, a pledge to remain working waterfront
Courtesy / Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Portland-based Gulf of Maine Research Institute has committed to buying Portland’s oldest wharf, dating back to 1793.
After nearly nine months on the market, ownership of Portland waterfront's oldest wharf will transfer to a neighbor just down the street.
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute and the Proprietors of Union Wharf on Monday announced they have signed a purchase and sale agreement to transfer ownership of Union Wharf to the institute.
The institute is a nonprofit marine science center and research institute located nearby on Commercial Street. With the wharf acquisition, its goal is to protect working waterfront access in Portland Harbor, according to a news release.
“Union Wharf epitomizes high-quality working waterfront in Portland Harbor,” Don Perkins, the institute’s president and CEO, said in a news release. “Our vision is for Union Wharf to serve as a model for how coastal communities can continue to invest in and protect waterfront access. We will steward and manage Union Wharf over the long-term with the guidance of industry advisors."
Commitment to working wharf
The deal is expected to close in December. The sale price was not disclosed. The institute will finance the purchase with a combination of a mortgage and cash, Perkins told Mainebiz via email.
Terms of the sale included honoring the leases with current tenants, as part of the institute’s commitment to stewarding Union Wharf as a working wharf, he said.
Further investment at some point in the future is expected.
“The Poole family has maintained the wharf in grade-A condition for years by making steady investments and updates, which we intend to continue,” said Perkins. “Our first priority is to protect and preserve the wharf in its current condition. In the future, we expect to create additional capacity by adding new structures to the wharf to support other ocean-based economic activity.”
The institute will incorporate the wharf as a tax-paying limited liability corporation that is wholly owned by the institute.
“We have employed a similar strategy, although the vehicle was C-corporations, to manage our two innovative marine businesses under our Gulf of Maine Ventures initiative: True Fin, formerly Gulf of Maine Sashimi, and New England Marine Monitoring,” said Perkins. “We expect this business development capacity will play a role in attracting further investment and innovative tenants to Union Wharf in the future.”
228-year history
Union Wharf was built in 1793 at the foot of Union Street. It’s been owned by the Poole family, operating as Proprietors of Union Wharf, for the last 160 years.
In March, Proprietors of Union Wharf, led by fifth-generation owners and managers Charlie and Malcolm Poole, began working with the Dunham Group, a Portland real estate agency, to find a new owner.
It was the first time the wharf had been on the market.
Like-minded entity
The Poole family sought a like-minded entity to carry on the tradition of maintaining a working pier and a working waterfront, according to the release.
“For generations, the Poole family has felt very strongly about stewardship to Union Wharf and more broadly, to the working waterfront in the Port of Portland,” said Charlie Poole.
After discussions with fishing community leaders, city leaders, the Department of Marine Resources, community organizations and other interested parties, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute submitted a proposal to purchase the wharf.
The Poole family selected the institute’s bid because of its commitment to steward the wharf as a centerpiece of the city’s working waterfront and because its offered a fair price, according to the release.
“The Gulf of Maine Research Institute brings a very similar view of the working waterfront and the necessary commitment to maintaining the infrastructure to a very high standard,” said Poole. “We felt they would be the best fit to take over the ownership and management of Union Wharf going forward.”
Under the Pooles’ stewardship, the property has served the needs of the working waterfront community with a diverse mix of warehouse space and storage, dockage and berthing, office, retail, restaurant and parking.
Tenants have a history of long-term leases. The wharf contains 12 primary buildings totaling 61,872 square feet of net rentable space. It has 1,514 linear feet of berthing/dockage space and 55,981 square feet of pier space. All of the buildings have been updated or rebuilt since the 1980s. Pier components were significantly updated in 2017.
The property sits on 3.3 upland acres and one acre of submerged land that provides access to dockage and berthing space.
Former eyesore
One of Portland’s waterfront landmarks, Union Wharf sits between the tourism-focused eastern waterfront and the working waterfront that starts at Widgery Wharf and extends west to the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge.
Portland’s waterfront was once considered an eyesore. A 1978 study funded by the National Science Foundation described it as “one of the most decrepit on the East Coast.” That sparked a redevelopment effort in the 1970s and 1980s, including new investments and infrastructure in the Old Port. That coincided with the passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976, which aimed to protect domestic fishermen from foreign competition.
Over the last 50 years, Portland has evolved into a mixed-use waterfront. But marine- and non-marine-related businesses have increasingly competed for valuable access not only to waterfront real estate but to the harbor itself, resulting in a struggle to strike the right balance between attracting more tourists and businesses and retaining traditional activities related to the fishing industry.
Union Wharf is part of Portland’s working waterfront, with lobster traps and other features that reflect that, as described in a 2018 Mainebiz print feature story.
But non-marine development – including condominium, hotel and office projects – along with maintenance costs and climate change, have made the assets more difficult to preserve as working waterfronts.
Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Patrick Keliher hailed the acquisition as a step toward protecting Portland’s working waterfront and Maine’s maritime heritage.
“Access through the preservation of Maine’s working waterfront is vital to protecting jobs, and supplying healthy, locally sourced Maine seafood,” he said.
The institute’s goal is to demonstrate how the wharf’s preservation can serve as a model for how other coastal communities navigating similar challenges, according to the release.
“By buying and protecting Union Wharf, GMRI will buffer the rest of our working wharves and protect them from speculation,” Willis Spear, a Portland fisherman. “They will help ensure a future for our next generation of fishermen.”
In the early 2000s, the institute acquired Wright’s Wharf, which neighbors the institute’s facility on Commercial Street. Wright’s Wharf is home to the institute’s lab, located between Becky’s Diner and the Portland Fish Pier, through two like-kind property exchanges, one with the U.S. Coast Guard and the other with the U.S. Navy.
The institute’s plans for Union Wharf include expanding its capacity to support innovative fishermen and fish processors, the aquaculture industry, and other marine economy innovators.
Also in the midst of a pending sale is nearby Custom House Wharf, owned by the same family for more than 200 years.
Most Recent
Most Recent
Anonymous
November 19, 2021
So thankful for the Poole Family and the Gulf of Maine Resource for this
Back in the Seventies I was on the United Way and Landmarks with Bill Moody
working on a committee to save Portland’s waterfront
1 Comments