Demolition begins on old Portland Hall complex
In five to six weeks, a piece of University of Southern Maine history will be gone as part of a defunct student housing complex in the 600 block of Congress Street is demolished, clearing the way for parking to serve new apartments and retail stores.
Sixty thousand square feet of elevated parking-garage style dorms will be demolished over the next month and a half, clearing the way for 75 parking spaces, said developer Greg Shinberg.
"Basically, the three back wings come down, and then we'll have our parking lot," Shinberg said.
About 50,000 square feet of usable buildings will remain after the demolition, Shinberg estimated. Those buildings face onto Congress Street and will gain a new life as apartments and retail space.
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. Those buildings aren't going anywhere. Shinberg plans to renovate those old college dorm rooms on Congress Street into 56 apartments.
In the first week in July, Shinberg expected to start renovations on those streetside buildings. (On Tuesday, a host of contractors toured the buildings so they could bid on the renovation job.)
By Sept. 1, Shinberg expected to start renting out apartments in the newly renovated space. Rent will range from $675 to $1,250 a month, he said.
The apartments will occupy the upper levels of the streetside dorms, while the retail spaces will take up two levels from the ground floor, he said. The project is privately funded, he said.
In back, crews are dismantling three buildings, built on stilts, an adjunct to the old University of Southern Maine housing complex, known as Portland Hall. The A Wing, B Wing and Yankee Clipper Wing — including an old Best Western motel — cannot be salvaged economically, Shinberg explained. Much of the debris from these rear buildings will be recycled, he said.
Roughly 110 of the rooms once housing students were in the three wings due for demolition. Another 42 were in the pair of century-old buildings facing Congress Street.
Shinberg and Portland real esate developer Justin Alfond are partners on the project, which has received city approval. The developers are investing in excess of $4 million in the purchase and renovations, Shinberg has estimated. The pair also donated more than 1,000 pieces of furniture from the complex to the public and nonprofits.
