Briefs from May and June 2007
By Chris Busby
June 29, 2007
Broker sells Anthem building to itself
The Free Street office building owned and occupied by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield for decades has been sold by brokers CB Richard Ellis/The Boulos Co. The buyer: TC Acquisitions Inc., an investment arm of the commercial real estate company Trammell Crow, which was bought by the CB Richard Ellis Group last year.
CBRE/Boulos is now leasing office space at the property, which includes a surface parking lot and a parking garage across Spring Street. The entire property was listed for $11 million earlier this year. The final sale price is as yet undisclosed.
As The Bollard reported last summer, Anthem has relocated nearly 300 employees from the downtown Portland building to its facility on Gannett Drive in South Portland. A company spokesperson said the move is being made in the interest of efficiency. Anthem had occupied the building since the early 1970s.
The office building has over 85,000 square feet of space and 327 parking spaces. Some minor renovations will be done inside and outside the property.
Dallas-based Trammell Crow was a global giant in its own right before the CB Richard Ellis Group acquired it in a stock transaction valued at over $2 billion late last year. Trammell Crow’s brokerage and property management businesses are being merged with CB Richard Ellis’, but its real estate investment and development arms, though owned by CBRE, operate independently.
The combined company will control over 10 percent of the $24 billion commercial real estate services market in the U.S., by CBRE’s estimate. That’s nearly three times the share of its next closest competitor, Cushman & Wakefield, according to an article by Mark Heschmeyer of the CoStar Group, a real estate information services firm.
Local brokers said there’s nothing unethical or particularly unusual about the Anthem transaction, in which a subsidiary has essentially sold a property to another subsidiary of the same company, but several marveled at the size of the players now doing business in Portland.
“The big companies keep getting bigger,” observed Alan Fishman, owner and president of Fishman Realty Group in Portland.
June 27, 2007
Bayside condo tower still on hold
Nearly four years after developer Jeffrey Cohen unveiled plans to build a 12-story condominium tower in Bayside, the project may finally break ground this fall, Cohen said yesterday.
Called the Waterview at Bayside, the project’s plans envision 94 “luxury” condos rising from the corner of Forest and Cumberland avenues, next to Back Bay Tower. The units are estimated to cost between $325,000 and $500,000.
An unsuccessful legal challenge to the city’s approval of the project initiated in the summer of 2005 by Seaforth Housing, the California-based company that owns the 15-story Back Bay Tower, delayed construction for over a year. The delay complicated efforts to secure financing for the development, said Cohen, as concerns about the viability of the condo market surfaced nationally after the lawsuit was settled – unsettling potential lenders.
Cohen said progress is being made this summer in new dealings with a New England lender to finance construction. “We’ve got a pretty good shot at getting this built and starting construction in the fall,” he said.
Interest in the condos has been high, according to Cohen, who said 82 of the 94 units were “reserved” two years ago. When those reservations were subsequently converted into contracts, 67 buyers were still on board. The more recent financing delay may reduce that number further – and new contracts are not being offered at present, pending the project’s financing – but Cohen said over 200 people have expressed interest in the units, and he’s optimistic the building will be filled.
Meanwhile, Cohen and his son, Craig Cohen, are pursuing a major redevelopment project in St. Paul, Minn. The pair plan to create a mini-village of sorts on the 15-acre site of a defunct brewery. Though that project is also in progress, Jeffrey Cohen said Waterview is “right at the top of the list” of his development priorities.
June 19, 2007
Skate park hung up again
It’ll be at least another month before the Portland City Council votes on whether to build a new skate park at the Dougherty Field sports complex in Libbytown. On Monday night, councilors sent the matter back to the Health and Human Services Committee, which meets Thursday to consider soil testing results from an alternative site by Back Cove.
The committee was ordered to report back to the council for its July 16 meeting, and to hold a public meeting between neighbors and skate park users in the meantime.
As The Bollard reported last month, skateboarders, freestyle BMX bikers and downtown business owners alike have been frustrated by the lack of progress on the park. The process of selecting a new site began two years ago, and the previous public skate park on Marginal Way was removed this past winter (city officials cite “safety reasons” for its removal), prompting some skaters and bikers to take to the streets, parks and sidewalks, instead.
Some neighbors oppose a new skate park at Dougherty Field, citing concerns about noise and traffic. Several who spoke at Monday night’s meeting pointed out that a conceptual “master plan” for the site, completed over five years ago, does not include plans for a skate park.
“The council is being asked to ignore and trample on” the work that went into that plan, said City Councilor Ed Suslovic, a member of the Health and Human Services Committee.
Councilor Jim Cohen, another committee member, said he was concerned about the process by which the site came up for a vote last night. Cohen said he was “very disappointed” to learn through the media that a vote on the Dougherty Field location was on Monday’s agenda. His committee has not yet made a recommendation regarding a new park site.
In addition to consideration of the Back Cove site, the council may also weigh the possibility a new elementary school could be built at Dougherty Field. A joint city council/school board committee (called the “3×3 Committee”) is considering possible options to consolidate elementary schools, and Dougherty Field – located adjacent to the school department’s West School Program for students with behavioral and emotional challenges – is among two places being eyed for new construction.
That process, however, is unlikely to be finished by next month.
Despite the delay, the Dougherty Field site appears to have majority support on the council.
The Back Cove site has several major drawbacks, including the fact that, unlike Dougherty Field, where unused and dilapidated tennis courts would make way for a skate park, the coveside location would displace a grassy practice field used by youth and high school soccer teams. There may also be what city Parks & Recreation Department Director Denise Clavette termed “wetlands issues.”
“Elected mayor” dream deferred
Also on Monday, the Portland City Council deferred action on an order to ask voters whether to set up a charter commission – a body that could recommend the reestablishment of a directly elected mayor.
Councilors Dave Marshall and Kevin Donoghue had proposed to begin the commission process this fall, after having earlier failed to win council support to send a variation of the “elected mayor” idea directly to voters in November. [See “The Commish, then the Mayor?,” June 5, News Briefs, below.]
Councilor Ed Suslovic suggested the city first try to change the state law governing such commissions next year, and he ultimately got support from most councilors – including Donoghue and Marshall – to pursue that route, instead. (Councilors Donna Carr, Jill Duson, Cheryl Leeman and Jim Cohen opposed the motion to refer the matter to the council’s Legislative Committee, which Suslovic chairs.)
Among the concerns with the state law Suslovic raised is its stipulation that a charter commission be elected within 90 days of voters approving its creation. Suslovic and others oppose the idea introduced by Marshall and Donoghue to hold a vote on the commission’s formation and its members at the same time. Under that scenario, it’s possible for voters to “elect” charter commissioners while simultaneously rejecting the idea of creating the commission in the first place, as happened a few years ago when a county charter commission was put before the public and voted down.
Suslovic would seek a change in state law to allow municipalities to hold the election for commission members on the next “regular” election day – in June or November – following approval of its creation. He also favors giving cities more flexibility to determine how many commissioners to elect, and whether those commissioners are elected at-large, by all city voters, or by individual council districts.
Councilor Jim Cloutier said he likes the idea of a commission elected the same way voters choose councilors – four are elected at-large and five represent individual districts. Without changes in state law, “we’re going to have a stupid charter commission,” he said.
It would be next spring, at the earliest, before the state took action on any proposed changes to the law. A vote to establish a charter commission would then not likely take place until next November, at the earliest – with, if voters approve it, an election of commission members in June of 2009.
Voters would go to the polls again to weigh in on any changes to city government put forth by the commission. That vote could be at least three years down the road.
June 12, 2007
Voters reject library bond
City voters have nixed plans to relocate the main Portland Public Library into the former Portland Public Market behind it. With all but one precinct reporting, the tally was 56 to 44 percent against the move.
Turnout was extremely low – just over 10 percent of the city’s 46,312 registered voters cast ballots in today’s special election.
The library was asking voters to borrow an additional $1 million to help pay for the move. Three years ago, voters approved a $4 million bond for renovation of the current central library in Monument Square.
It’s not as though Portland voters weren’t in a borrowing mood. State bond measures asking for nearly $120 million for transportation projects (like roads, bridges, airport and ferry terminals) and over $18 million for water and sewage work were supported by wide margins citywide.
Voters in neighborhoods on the peninsula generally supported the library proposal – with the exception of those on the East End, where it was narrowly defeated – but precincts off the peninsula and on the islands were decidedly against it.
Having failed to win popular support for the market plan, library officials will attempt to improve the 30-year-old building using the $4 million previously approved and whatever private fundraising they can muster. As The Bollard reported in late 2005, the library has struggled to raise enough private capital to meet its earlier renovation goal.
Donors were considerably more enthusiastic about the prospect of a move to the market, library officials have said.
“It’s a disappointment,” library board vice president and former mayor Nathan Smith said tonight. Smith said library officials will now pursue “modified” plans for renovation of 5 Monument Square.
Completion of the original renovation plans would have cost $8.5 million. But that was five years ago, and construction costs have increased significantly since then. Though final designs have not yet been completed, the “modified” plans may entail less extensive improvements, due to cost constraints.
Smith said the library spent between $10,000 and $15,000 on its campaign to convince voters to support the measure. No serious opposition group formed to persuade voters otherwise.
June 5, 2007
Digger’s denied
By a unanimous vote, the Portland City Council has denied bar owner Tom Manning’s request to renew liquor and entertainment licenses for Digger’s/Liquid Blue, the combination pub and dance club he operates in the Old Port.
Manning’s attorney, Gary Prolman, vowed to appeal the decision to state liquor authorities and challenge the entertainment license denial in court. The pub/club will be allowed to continue to operate during the appeals, which will likely take many months to complete.
As The Bollard reported May 1, the police department recommended the licenses be denied due to a pattern of violent behavior on the part of patrons and staff. In testimony tonight, Capt. Vern Malloch, head of the department’s patrol division, told councilors police were concerned about “a disturbing trend [of staff] choking [patrons] to the point of someone losing consciousness and an ambulance having to be called.”
Prolman argued that of the calls for service, several were initiated by bar staff attempting to handle problem customers, and most were made after the bar had closed. He also said Manning had improved the area over the past seven years he’s owned the pub/club, but the corner it occupies, at Fore and Union streets, is a place where late-night revelers congregate. As a consequence, some unrelated disturbances are attributed to the nearby establishment unjustly, he said.
Malloch disputed that, and said, “when we look inside [Digger’s/Liquid Blue], we’re not comfortable it’s a well run establishment.”
In making his own case, Manning said the number of fights and other disturbances at his establishment are small, given the crowds of people who regularly visit the premises, which has a capacity of over 400. He said he has tried to work with the police department and improve his business. For example, the barbeque menu Digger’s previously offered is being replaced with seafood dishes.
“Please let me continue the hard work I’ve been doing,” Manning asked the Council. He added, “I haven’t slept in two months” due to stress over allegations his bar is run poorly.
Councilors were not convinced.
“An assault once a week is a pattern,” said Councilor Jill Duson. “Our officers are at risk.”
“Actions speak louder than words,” said Councilor Ed Suslovic, who initiated the Council’s scrutiny of the license renewal requests. He said the establishment has “an absolutely terrible record.”
The final vote was 6-0. Councilor Cheryl Leeman was absent due to illness; Mayor Nick Mavodones was traveling; and Councilor Jim Cloutier left the meeting just prior to the matter’s consideration. Cloutier’s law partner, Gerry Conley, represented Manning in a criminal case stemming from his arrest last summer for fighting outside Digger’s/Liquid Blue.
Manning also owns several other establishments in the immediate area: the restaurant/dance club Cake and the raucous college bar The Iguana, both on Wharf Street; and The Mercury, a cocktail lounge a block east of Digger’s/Liquid Blue, on Fore Street. In addition to several other business pursuits, he and a relative are developing a multi-million-dollar commercial and residential complex on a former military base in northern Maine. [For more on Manning’s bars and this development, see his Web site, www.portlandatnight.net.]
The Commish, then the Mayor?
The odds are good that Portland voters will be asked to decide this November whether or not to elect a special commission to study changes to the City Charter, including the possibility of reinstituting the position of a directly elected mayor with expanded governing powers.
The odds of voters approving such a commission, however, are anybody’s guess.
Councilors Dave Marshall and Kevin Donoghue are promoting the commission after previously opposing the idea. The pair, both Green Independents who represent districts on the peninsula, tried unsuccessfully earlier this year to convince their colleagues to put a different measure on this fall’s ballot.
That measure would have created a so-called “weak mayor” – one directly elected by voters, rather than appointed by councilors from amongst themselves, but with no greater authority than the post currently carries. [See “Council Greens push for elected mayor,” Feb. 27, in News.] A “strong mayor” would have more authority, such as veto power or direct management of the city budget, but any change that alters the balance of power between councilors can only be made after a charter commission is elected and formed to recommend changes.
The commission’s determinations are not predictable – for example, it may or may not recommend any changes, or could propose an even more radical restructuring of city government. Marshall and Donoghue opposed forming a commission partly for that reason, but they now say subsequent discussions with constituent groups have led them to believe it’s the more popular, and practical, way to go.
The Council will consider whether to put the question on this November’s ballot at its June 18 meeting. The order would also set this coming election day, Nov. 6, as the date voters would choose who will serve on the commission – should a majority also vote to form it that day. As proposed, there would be eight members – five elected from each of the city electoral districts, and three appointed by the Council.
Marshall and Donoghue were the only councilors to support holding a “weak mayor” vote, but it appears there’s majority support for a charter commission that could lead to a “strong mayor.” Councilors Jim Cloutier, Ed Suslovic and Jill Duson have all expressed general support for the idea of at least asking voters whether they wish to form a charter commission.
Councilor Cheryl Leeman is among those opposed to even putting the question before the local electorate. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Leeman said of city government. She decried “all these people with their personal agendas… special interest agendas” who support major changes in the mayorship.
Efforts to reinstitute a directly elected mayor have surfaced repeatedly over the past half-century or so, most recently 10 years ago, when voters rejected a measure to form a charter commission. Lawn signs depicting a corrupt-looking chief executive helped dissuade Portlanders from endorsing the commission, people on both sides recall.
“I will dust off my campaign signs,” Leeman vowed. “No – big no.”
May 23, 2007
Baumanns sell Old Port holdings
A significant block of properties in the Old Port has changed hands in a transaction bound to further change the character of Portland’s historic tourism and nightlife district.
Kalmon Dolgin Affiliates, the New York–based real estate investment firm that bought the so-called Time & Temperature Building at 477 Congress Street last December, acquired the Old Port properties previously held by the Baumann family for $8.3 million.
The transaction includes 432-446 Fore Street and 32-54 Wharf Street. In addition to some boutique shops, the block includes several rowdy bars and dance clubs, including Digger’s/Liquid Blue, on Fore Street, and The Iguana and Cake, on Wharf Street – all of which are owned by Tom Manning, who is facing City Council scrutiny over his operation of Digger’s/Liquid Blue. Councilors are expected to consider Manning’s liquor and entertainment license renewal requests next month.
The Baumanns – real estate broker Steve Baumann and his father, Ed Baumann – bought the Old Port buildings from notorious landlord Joe Soley two years ago, and have been credited with improving the area by replacing troubled dance clubs with high-end retail and restaurants. Steve Baumann said the family had not intended to sell, but his father’s recent health problems prompted them to reconsider.
Asked if Kalmon Dolgin will continue to lease space to Manning, spokesperson Deborah Geiger said, “That’s a wonderful question.
“Their intentions are to drive more upscale tenants in that area,” Geiger continued. “I know that the district has kind of a history of being the ‘red-light district'” – a reference to urban areas where prostitution flourishes. “They’re trying to bump up the tenant type.”
Geiger said she would put The Bollard in direct contact with the new property owners for further information, but did not follow through on that promise.
Steve Baumann said the new owners intend to convert the building currently occupied by The Iguana to retail use next year, when the bar’s lease is up, as he himself had intended to do before the sale. The future of Digger’s/Liquid Blue is less clear. Former Portland City Councilor and Mayor Nathan Smith, the attorney who represented Kalmon Dolgin in the transaction, said, “as a threshold expectation, the new landlords expect a tenant to comply with the law.”
Manning and his attorney, Gary Prolman, are preparing a vigorous defense that Prolman said will debunk the notion his client is an irresponsible bar owner.
No booze (ads) on the bus?
Earlier this month, Portland City Councilor Ed Suslovic tried unsuccessfully to convince fellow board members of the Greater Portland Transit District – which operates the Metro bus system – to ban alcohol advertisements inside and outside city buses. The move has prompted the board to formally reconsider its policies for ads on public transit. The board’s marketing subcommittee, which Suslovic serves on, is expected to present recommendations next month.
Though there’s disagreement and confusion as to whether any board-approved “policies” governing advertising exist, current practice specifically bans two types of ads: those promoting tobacco and religion.
Portland City Councilor and Metro board member Kevin Donoghue said the ban on smokes and religions was never voted on by the board and is not codified in any written policy. He questioned whether religious advertising is actually banned, since Mercy Hospital and Catholic Charities Maine both currently advertise with the bus system.
Denise Beck, Metro’s director of marketing, said the ban on tobacco and religious advertisements “isn’t a policy, per se,” but is spelled out on the back of the bus system’s advertising contract. Asked why Catholic Charities is allowed to advertise, Beck said she would contact the charity’s ad buyer to get more information. The contract language was in place before Beck assumed the job over a year ago, she and the board members said.
The ban on tobacco advertising may be required by federal law, said Beck and the board members. Beck noted that federal law prohibits tobacco advertising in close proximity to schools.
Suslovic said his proposed ban on ads for alcoholic beverages is also intended to protect children’s health. “If we’re targeting youth to ride the Metro, it seems to me we have both an opportunity and an obligation” to keep ads for alcohol off buses, he said. Suslovic added that some board members have raised concerns over free speech issues related to advertising policy, and said those issues will be part of his committee’s consideration.
At present, there are no ads for alcoholic beverages on Metro buses, but Portland’s Allagash Brewing Company and organizers of the annual Maine Brewers’ Festival have previously advertised on Metro buses.
Donoghue said he and other opponents of a booze-ad ban cited the bus system’s lagging revenue as a reason to oppose it. Furthermore, Donoghue said he’s “proud of Portland’s reputation as a brewing capital.
“I don’t think that’s something we should be ashamed of,” Donoghue continued. “I appreciate the support from our local brewers. They’re the ones who have advertised [on Metro buses]. We’re not getting [ads for] Coors Light or Natty Ice.”
May 14, 2007
Parking fee, ticket and rate hikes proposed
Portland officials are considering an increase in parking meter rates to boost municipal revenues and encourage drivers to park in public garages – where parking rates are also set to increase. And in a triple-whammy, parking ticket fines could increase, too.
The cost of an hour of on-street, metered parking would jump 50 percent, from 50 cents an hour to 75 cents, if approved as part of this year’s city budget. The hourly rates at the municipal Elm Street and Spring Street parking garages would go up 25 cents, to $1.25 per hour. And parking ticket fines would go up $5 for nearly every type of violation: expired meter ($15, currently $10); wrong side of street ($25, currently $20); meter-feeding to park in excess of two hours ($20, currently $15).
Coupled with the fee, fine and rate hikes are two measures intended to help mitigate their impact. Most notably, the first hour of parking in the municipal garages would be free; at present, the first half hour is free. And the amnesty program for some parking violations – which forgives one ticket every six months for, say, an expired meter – is being expanded from the downtown area to the entire city.
Though most meters are downtown, this change would give some relief to violators in off-peninsula neighborhoods and those who park near hospitals in the West End, “who are quite often under a tremendous amount of stress,” noted parking manager John Peverada in a memo requesting the change.
The meter-fee hike is expected to generate an additional $615,000 annually, Peverada notes. The parking ticket fine increases are expected to put another $238,000 in city coffers every year.
The expired-meter and overtime (meter-feeding) fines have not increased since 1994. In addition, wrote Peverada, “[w]e surveyed other cities in New England and found that our current fees are on the low side.”
“If every other city is driving off the bridge,” The Bollard asked Peverada, “should Portland do the same?”
“That’s a good question to ask,” Peverada replied. But he also noted that on-street parking occupancy rates in Portland are slightly higher than the “optimum” level of 85 percent.
By increasing ticket fines, the city hopes to encourage drivers to use parking garages. Likewise, the meter rate hike is intended to discourage people from “‘cruising,’ the streets to find an inexpensive place to park,” he wrote in a memo.
The City Council is holding a workshop on the budget tonight at 5 p.m., in Council Chambers at City Hall. A final budget vote is scheduled for May 21.
May 8, 2007
Martin Steingesser named Portland Poet Laureate
Martin Steingesser has been named the first Poet Laureate of Portland. A resident of Munjoy Hill, Steingesser, who recently turned 70, was nominated for the post and selected by the board of the new non-profit literary arts organization Maine Poetry Central to serve a one-year term in the position. [Disclosure: this reporter is a board member of the organization. For more on the group, see the March 26 Brief below.]
Steingesser will accept the honor at an inaugural event and reading to be held June 12 at the Wadsworth-Longfellow House museum, part of the Maine Historical Society complex at 489 Congress Street, in Portland. The event is free and open to the public.
As detailed on his Web site, www.martinsteingesser.com, Steingesser’s accomplishments include the 2002 publication of a collection of his poetry,Brothers of Morning. His work has appeared in The Sun, the New York Times‘ op-ed page, The American Poetry Review and many other publications.
Of particular significance to his role as Portland Poet Laureate, Steingesser has been a tireless advocate and educator on behalf of the written and spoken word, having led well over 1,000 poetry workshops since 1981 in schools and other settings. As Portland Poet Laureate, this outreach work will continue.
In addition to his poetry and other writing, Steingesser is known for his stilt-walking performances at festivals and events throughout the state.
