June 2015 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 5. Portland Yacht Services New Site has been a Challenge
PORTLAND – Life is full of challenges, and at times these challenges can test ones forti- tude. For those traveling Commercial Street in Portland, to the west of the new bridge, you must have notice all the construction that has been going on over the last year and a half. First came some clearing and then a large fabric covered building. After getting past several hurdles another large metal building started going up late last fall. Now more hurdles to jump as another building is planned for the new home of Portland Yacht Services.
Portland Yacht Services owner, Phineas
Sprague, Jr., explained the yards beginning. He said, “Around 1984 the City of Portland decided that the Portland Company’s prop- erty on the east end of the waterfront could be nothing but marine related usage. I was working on boats in Cape Elizabeth so I moved into the facility. In 2002 the City decided they did not want a boat yard there anymore with the East End master plan. They wanted to have a retail space, which would include residences. Basically they said we don’t want a boat yard here. So I could not build any new buildings, could not add a travelift, so there was no future. We put the place on the market and the idea was that I wouldn’t sell it unless I had a place to move the business. We found a potential buyer and based on the courage of him saying he was going to buy it. I approached Unitel, which is the natural gas company that had this piece of property. They had put it on the market and nobody wanted it because the environmental issues just seemed to be so large. The pollution stretched underneath their property to the railroad property and it ended up going into the harbor.” Phineas worked on several boards that oversaw the environmental aspects of the harbor and bay and this gave him an under- standing of what needed to be done to make this site a boat yard. His next step was to re- quest a copy of the environmental analysis of the property. After reading the report he felt that if he put together a team this site could be used for a boat yard. His next move was to make an offer to Unitel and the railroad for about 22 acres of land. He was given an option on the property by both parties, but this hinged on getting the permits. With the
A view of he fi rst two building constructed on the new site on the west end of Portland's waterfront for Portland Yacht Services.
team in place, they concluded that there was a way to stop the pollution by placing two feet of dirt over the problem areas and then a boat yard could be placed there. The State of Maine had fi rst refusal on the railroad property, but they gave up their right. Now came the planning process with City and State agencies. While all this was going on, the prospective buyer decided to go away. Then came Norway Savings Bank who came in and would have allowed Phin- eas to proceed with the purchase, but a new buyer for the Portland Company property made an offer. With permits in hand a new twist surfaced in the form of a shipping company, Eimskip of Iceland, looking for a port to operate out of. Phineas added, “They showed up at the Pan Am railroad’s presi- dent’s offi ce with a plan for the property I just bought. They needed a 100,000 square foot freezer building and another 50,000 square foot building if they were going to consider coming to Portland. David Fink, president of the railroad, called me and said you don’t have to do this, but this use is so much more valuable than a boat yard. Why
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don’t you consider agreeing to move your boat yard to the railroad land further west and if you will do that you we will go to Iceland and pitch Portland. I got calls from the State of Maine, the Port Authority, the City of Portland, Chamber of Commerce, all saying this land is too valuable to the community.”
Then surfaced another hurdle, the Shoreland Zoning Act, which stated that no tree with a diameter of four inches four feet up from the ground could be cut down. The City of Portland’s zoning said that it was okay to cut them, but at a pre-planning
board meeting the City showed Phineas the State’s rules. So off to Augusta to change the State law, but now the major factors were loss of time, effort, resources and money. Phin added, “It is just another example of piling it higher and deeper. It really stops jobs creations. Everybody recognized how stupid it was, but six months and a $1,000 a day and instead of putting your resources onto doing something constructive you say why the hell am I doing this? The reason I am doing this is because I wasn’t just going
Continued on Page 22.
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