The Portland City Council held an executive session on Monday, September 29 to discuss the potential process for developing the Midtown properties. The City reacquired the Midtown properties back in July following Council approval of a settlement agreement at its July 14, 2025 meeting.
City staff sought guidance from the council on the potential development options and next steps for the Midtown properties. Moving forward the City will continue to explore all available options for the properties and in the coming weeks will issue a request for proposals to seek a real estate broker to assist in that exploration. Any potential development will include ample opportunity for public participation and comment before final decisions are made. How many of Portland’s many developers are waiting for details on the process and how to participate in it?
By way of background, back in 2011 Federated Cos. of Florida, signed a contract with the city of Portland to construct a major rental complex on the property. It was 3.25 acres of blighted land. The proposal of Federated called for four large towers with 500 – 800 market rate rental units, a parking garage and retail space on site. Significantly, it was also located next to a section of Portland Trails that was expected to be heavily used by tenants in this large new complex. Many Portlanders thought the construction of this complex would help reduce the rental housing shortage in Portland at the time.
At an April 23, 2013 city council meeting regarding the approval of a height reduction by Jonathan Cox, Federated’s CEO and founder, Tim Paradis, of Portland, called Midtown “bloated and car driven.” Paradis went on to say: “It would not be acepted by any other neighborhood. It’s a short-sighted vision and will debase the attractiveness of the area………………….” Then, in October of 2013, Tim Paradis and Peter Monroe, retired landscape architect, founded a non-profit KeepPortlandLivable, to stop the development of projects that are “out of scale, out of character and a bad deal for Portland,” according to a press release issued by the two at the time.
In November of 2014, the two threatened the $85 million project with a lawsuit. Rather, Federated opted to reduce the height of the tall buildings and to meet permitting deadlines or quit the project entirely. The project failed beause of the demands of the two.from the west end of Portland. The resolution of the property has languished in court since around 2021. Portland Trails, a local non-profit played a role in the failure of this complex claiming that the proximity of the proposed complex would adversely affect the trail. .
“If the original Midtown initially called Maritime Landing, had been allowed to go forward to completion, this blogger believes the complex would have been instrumental in reducing the current rental housing shortage in Portland. What was short-sighted was the lack of vision by Paradis and Monroe.”
Please visit post herein dated March 15, 2024 for more information on this situation.
Incidentally on another real estate matter, this blogger has asked the city’s spokeswoman when the planned community policing center set to open the end of September at 443 Congress Street will be opening. It was hyped to open near the Portland Ppublic Library. That is today. Is the opening of this facility still on track? No response yet to this inquiry.