The Former Headquarters of the Former Northern Burner Supply Company and its Parking Lot at 165 Washington Avenue.

Construction of the 7-story  apartment building planned for 165 Washington Avenue on the east end of Portland was supposed to have begun this spring.  But construction plans have been delayed according to Jonathan Culley, managing partner for Redfern Properties, LLC.  Construction has been delayed until sometime in 2006.

The planned 325 unit apartment building has been the subject of much controversy in the past year or so.  That’s because the massive building will provide only 11 parking spaces for its tenants  The city allows the small number of parking spaces because the building is located near a bus line.  However, some businesses on the Washington Avenue corridor are concerned that the lack of parking spaces provided by the developer will further hamper parking options for customers on an already congested street.  Another concern for some residents of North Street is that this tall building will block views from above the building.  But, Munjoy Heights, a luxury condominium that Redfern Properties built, will not experience blocks to its views because of a dip in the height of the building in front of it.

“Trump’s erratic and unpredictable economic policy is not helping us.  Trade Wars and Tariffs all are likely to keep inflation high while keeping interest rates high,” said Culley in an email to this blogger today.  This was the reason given for the delay in construction that was to have begun this spring.

Last night in his almost two hour diatribe to both branches of Congress, Convicted Felon Trump painted a rosey picture of his administration’s work to date.  Unfortunately, the Dow Jones didn’t reflect that view as it dropped almost 700 points in its second day of sell-offs attributed to his Trade Wars with our allies and China.  And CF never mentioned that drop, although it was on the minds of many during his diatribe.  But today, CF backed down somewhat on his tariffs on the auto industry.  Consequently, the Dow Jones made up some of the ground it lost over the past two days.  Erratic for sure.

Culley expects these units will mostly be occupied by international graduate students attending the Roux Institute in East Deering at the former B&M Baked Bean factory; 1 Beanpot Circle.   So far no contract between the two entities has been reached.  He says that as international students they do not have cars when they arrive here.  Therefore, no parking spaces are required to accommodate them and businesses along Washington Avenue need not be concerned about additional parking issues.  We’ll see.

The approval of this project will have an adverse affect on the AM Vet Post 25 across the street.  The long-time vet center expects it will  have to relocate to another site.  That’s because the center will loose about 20 parking spaces at the former Northern Burner facility at the Washington Street location.  The vet center has an agreement with the property owner to maintain the property in exchange for the use of about 20 parking spaces in the lot for its members.  The loss of those parking spaces for its members, some of whom are elderly, could force the center to relocate somewhere else.

What other projects are being delayed for the same reason?

For more background information on the project, please visit post herein dated December 9, 2024.