Author Topic: Development in Portland  (Read 591 times)

Mike Fox

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Development in Portland
« on: January 14, 2025, 11:51:09 AM »
From WGME 13.
 Historic Portland railroad track to be closed for months due to condo, hotel development https://wgme.com/news/local/historic-portland-railroad-track-to-be-closed-for-months-due-to-condo-hotel-development-maine-narrow-gauge-railroad-company
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ALAIN DELASSUS

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #1 on: January 14, 2025, 12:39:08 PM »
That's too bad. After their museum their track. But there again the beautifull Portland's sea frontside creates quite a lot of real estate promoters' covetousness and interest. It's the same thing all over the world money rules. I'm afraid  this affair turns out badly someday.

Mike Fox

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2025, 01:35:18 PM »
So the part I don't get is that MNG is operating on State owned land which they have a 25 year lease for. How can a developer just send a letter telling you we are pulling your track? Something is not adding up or info has been left out on purpose...
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Bob Holmes

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2025, 07:11:48 PM »
I agree with Mike and Alain.  Was there a flaw in their lease agreement that allowed this to happen?  What recourse do they have against the developers?  And what monetary and restorative reparations do they have a right to claim?

And if they decide to make nice, what significant concessions can they extract in return?  For example, perhaps the funding of their planned storage buildings at the end of the line?

Andrew Toppan

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2025, 08:44:02 PM »
So the part I don't get is that MNG is operating on State owned land which they have a 25 year lease for. How can a developer just send a letter telling you we are pulling your track? Something is not adding up or info has been left out on purpose...

Exactly, some info must be missing. It's clear there was discussion and agreement about this to some extent; other articles cite an agreed-upon relocation of both the railroad and the trail towards the water/seawall and away from the development site. MNG acknowledges a planned two-week shutdown: "This communication comes at a time when our Board of Trustees had only agreed to a two-week closure period."

This really seems like a failure to communicate in some form or fashion, about the duration of the closure, and I won't speculate further about that.

But if it's gotta happen, whether for 2 weeks or 2 months, the dead of winter is certainly the best time for it.



Graham Buxton

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2025, 10:23:16 AM »
Its not obvious to me which portion of track is at issue.  But ... it does appear that some of MNG facilities and track are on property owned by PF LAND LLC. See the Tax Map screenshot.  While that section doesn't seem to be the 'main' track, if there is equipment that must be moved off that property, it has to go somewhere. That 'somewhere' might be the main track.




Here is the area in Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portland,+ME/@43.6632079,-70.2421491,105m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x4cb29c72aab0ee2d:0x7e9db6b53372fa29!8m2!3d43.670822!4d-70.2843825!16zL20vMGM0a3Y?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDExMC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

Tax Map link: https://portlandme.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6208128831ea40c7a7c432317527336b
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Graham Buxton

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2025, 10:39:46 AM »
There is a more informative story here: https://www.pressherald.com/2025/01/13/portlands-narrow-gauge-railroad-to-close-temporarily-to-accommodate-nearby-construction/

A snippet:
Quote
Part of the project includes moving the Eastern Promenade trail and the railroad tracks closer to the waterfront to make room for some of the new development. A spokesperson for the city confirmed that Prentice, the city and the Maine Department of Transportation have an agreement to reconstruct the trail and the rail line, which are on state-owned land, according to city property records.

Looks like the "agreement" should have been studied more closely. Perhaps by an attorney.
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Ed Lecuyer

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2025, 11:41:53 AM »
An additional news video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28H4pQXfdCg
Includes shots showing how the equipment is currently located.
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John Kokas

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2025, 07:47:19 PM »
After watching the news coverage, it's quite obvious that the developers have the local and state officials in their pocket already.
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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2025, 08:06:45 PM »
It is obvious to me, although a plainly biased observer, that the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad is the “best and highest use” of the property along which it operates, “best and highest” use being a term of the real estate art.

Bill Piche

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2025, 01:29:53 PM »
If I recall, part of the project is to "swap" the locations of the trail and the rails between the ocean gateway and Fort Allen Park. They're both on State owned land, which runs from India Street around the Eastern Prom to the bridge.

I believe that part of the reason the railroad agreed to the switch was that it would get new track installed on the area taken by the current trail when it was all said and done. The track from the Portland Company area out to Fort Allen (the parcels currently under development) has been in rough shape since I've been there in 2006, with most work limited to replacing ties to keep the gauge in good shape, but not really lifting it out of ground all that much.

Something similar happened when the Ocean Gateway project was being done 2005-2008. Originally the tracks paralleled Commercial & Thames Streets all the way to Franklin street, with the platform being between Franklin Street and India Street, and the runaround being between India Street and Hancock Street. To allow access for the heavy machinery to access the job site, the city/state made the railroad pull up all track back to Portland Company on the promise that it would be put back when it was done. That turned out to be that they took up everything from Franklin Street all the way back to Portland Company. The city took the opportunity to widen the Thames Street sidewalks, paved part of the row to create part of the Eastern Prom trail, and installed light poles that encroach on the right of way.

When it came time to put the tracks back, the developers re-laid tracks back to the driveway entrance that was built across from Hancock Street, and refused to go further because it would cost quite a bit to cut in a crossing since the street had already been paved in. The city also informed the railroad that under no circumstances would the tracks be allowed beyond India street since that part of the ROW (India to Franklin) was owned by the city and not part of the lease the railroad had with the state. The railroad decided that a $50k+ crossing, plus whatever it would take to regrade\reinstall all the removed track for maybe another 400 feet of right of way wasn't worth the expenditure. The loss in visibility obviously outweighed that savings, but the railroad was pretty broke at the time (MNG Polar Express was still a few years away, and even that wasn't a cash cow in the early years like it is today).

Over the last 5 years or so the the developers mandated that the yard area be whittled down until all that's left that's on the developer owned property was the engine house. Now even the engine house (what was left of it) has been torn down and the track pulled up from the looks of it. The siding between the mainline and the engine house is technically on the State ROW, so that could be put back in and used for storage, but the yard and engine house were always on private property. There's been efforts to build some sort of building or another siding to store equipment off the mainline but on state owned row, but for reasons I'm not privy to haven't come to fruition.
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Graham Buxton

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2025, 03:42:22 PM »
At one time the MNG website had a page regarding the projects Bill mentioned, This is a screenshot created from a retrieval from archive.org. (I chose to include the archive.org header to make clear the source. The original MNG page did not have that header.)



My recollection is that the Storage Facility was planned to be sited near the north end of the line, while the Portland Station would be at the other end.
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Mike Fox

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Re: Development in Portland
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2025, 06:53:38 PM »
I think a positive spin on this would be better than saying they were blindsided. Say something like they decided on this timeline because our ridership is low (or nonexistan) this time of year. In the end, we will have some fine new track.

Normal operations conclude after Polar, with a break until February vacation in the past. Not sure what their schedule was going to be this winter. I imagine the same.
Mike
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