By a vote of 8 – 1, last night the Portland City Council approved a contract to provide new homeless shelter services for asylum seekers located at 166 Riverside Industiral Parkway. The contract includes housing, health care and education services for asylum seekers who now reside at the PortlandEXPO. The contract is with Kevin Bunker, of Developers Collaborative.
Councilor Mark Dion was the one city officials voting opposed to the contract. The new shelter is in his District.
The newly approved shelter replaces a furniture warehouse located at 90 Blueberry Road that was considered to be the first choice of parties involved in the project. That deal did not go through for unknown reasons.
This morning employees of Pine State Beverage were cleaning out the former beverage distrbution center. The interior was mostly cleared out, but a few pieces of metal remained to be removed. The former distribution center for Mariner Beverage became available several months ago. That’s because about a year ago Pine State and Mariner Beverage merged. The two beverage distributors are consolidating their facility into one on Route 201 in Gardner.
In an email to this blogger, Kevin Bunker, of Developer Collaboratove, said he expected to begin work on the buildng within the next few weeks with the project to be completed in November.
For more background information on the new location, please visit post herein dated June 9, 2023.