Old USM dorms giving way to apartments, retail stores
Developers hope to give boost to Congress Street
Congress Street will receive an economic shot in the arm, Portland developers Justin Alfond and Greg Shinberg say, once they finish building a mix of retail and residential units at an old University of Southern Maine housing complex in the 600 block.
The business partners hope to gain planning approval by April and start demolishing three buildings in back of the property soon after, Shinberg said. Also following city approval, they plan to rehabilitate two multi-story buildings facing Congress Street, he said.
"We've got close to 12,000 square feet of retail space that will generate a lot of new jobs down here," Shinberg said. "We want to be a part of this urban environment. It's a great location."
Alfond, a real estate developer and state senator who lives on Portland's Munjoy Hill, said the development also promises to enhance the city's reputation as a bicycle-friendly location.
"Congress Street is one of the city's premier streets. That building is a perfect location for rental units and for people who want to be car free," he said.
The apartments will cater to young people who use bicycles instead of cars, Shinberg agreed, calling it a "walker friendly site."
Shinberg said the duo plans to renovate old college dorm rooms on Congress Street into 55 to 56 apartments. One third will be efficiency apartments and two thirds single-bedroom units, he said. Five of the units will be affordable housing. The apartments will occupy the upper levels of the dorms, which were built in the 1990s, while the retail spaces will take up two levels from the ground floor, he said. The project is privately funded, he added.
"We're turning it into retail space and apartments upstairs," Shinberg explained.
The former college complex at 645 Congress St., located just west of the old State Theater, dates back more than a century to its first life as a rooming house, according to the city's planning department. A five-story building facing Congress Street was built circa 1893, and a six-story building to the west dates to 1899, according to the planning department.
More recently, in the 1960s, three additional wings were built behind the Congress Street-fronting buildings between Congress and Deering streets. Alfond and Shinberg plan to demolish these three buildings and free up space, initially for a 97-space parking lot, but later, Shinberg said, for an additional housing development. The economy will dictate how quickly this rear lot can be developed, he said. He foresaw condominiums and apartments similar in "size and scope" to other buildings in the Deering Street historic district.
The A Wing, B Wing and Yankee Clipper Wing — including an old Best Western — cannot be salvaged economically, Shinberg said.
"We're doing a parking lot right now," he said. "These buildings are shot."
All told, these wings occupy roughly 60,000 square feet. About 50,000 square feet of usable buildings will remain after the demolition, Shinberg estimated.
"I tried to figure every way I could to save these buildings," he said of the rear lot.
Some of these defunct dorm rooms stand on stilts, making it expensive to rehabilitate them, Shinberg noted.
Crews are busy prepping the front five- and six-story buildings for an overhaul, which will include new windows on Congress Street, new heating and other improvements, Shinberg said.
The development won't just help the economy and downtown aesthetic, Shinberg noted. He estimated that the last time taxes were generated on the property was 1988.
"This will be a taxable property," he said.
Also, there's the indirect cash infusion based on ongoing rehabilitation on Congress Street, Shinberg said. The developers are investing in excess of $4 million in the purchase and renovations, he estimated.
Shinberg said the Congress Street project represents one of his larger developments. He and Alfond teamed up on a condo development on Munjoy Hill, a $6 million project, he estimated.
The developers hope to be at a March 24 planning board workshop to continue review of their plan.
