Developer building Portland hotel buys waterfront lot and Ocean Gateway Garage
Photo / Paul Koenig
Ocean Gateway Garage and the nearby 1.3-acre lot was recently sold for $20 million to Portland Norwich Group LLC, which then sold the garage to a different party.
Courtesy of Portland Norwich Group LLC
A developer plans to build a 150-room AC Hotel by Marriott with 16 condominiums and restaurant or retail space on the now-vacant lot.
Ocean Gateway Garage and a nearby vacant lot have been sold, more than eight years after city officials and developers celebrated the garage’s groundbreaking as the start of a project expected to transform Portland’s eastern waterfront.
The project never materialized beyond the garage, but now another plan is in the works to construct a hotel and condominiums on the property.
A hotel development and investment firm with properties in New England and Florida bought the six-story Fore Street garage and 1.3-acre parcel between Fore, India, Hancock and Thames streets for $20 million from the investors of the failed development.
The firm, Portland Norwich Group LLC, then sold the garage to 167 Fore Street LLC for $13.1 million. Tom Moulton of NAI The Dunham Group, which brokered both deals, said 167 Fore Street represents one local investor who wasn’t involved in any of the previous developments on the site. Both sales closed Nov. 20.
The Ocean Gateway Garage and the vacant, fenced-off lot in front of the garage were both part of a failed plan to transform the former industrial area with more than 100 luxury condos, retail shops and an office building.
Portland Norwich Group, a subsidiary of Norwich Partners, which has offices in Lebanon, N.H., and Sanibel, Fla., plans to construct a 150-room AC Hotel by Marriott with 16 condominiums and roughly 4,000 square feet of restaurant or retail space on half of the vacant lot. The other side of the lot, abutting the Grand Trunk building on India Street, will be used for future development.
Greg Mitchell, Portland’s economic development director, said the hotel project fits perfectly with the original vision for the property.
“The addition of the hotel and future additional investment on this site really fulfils that longstanding vision for development in that area,” Mitchell said.
Development in that area is important to the city, Mitchell said, because it serves as a showcase of Portland to people traveling by ferries or cruise ships, entering the city through the Ocean Gateway terminal, Mitchell said.
The Planning Board must still hold a public hearing before approving the hotel and mixed-use plan, he said. According to the plan filed with the city, Citizens Bank has agreed to provide a loan of around $30 million to help finance the approximately $46 million project.
Two other projects are also under development near Ocean Gateway Garage from one of the original developers of the site, Shipyard Brewing Co. co-founder Fred Forsley. Forsley and Bateman Partners LLC are collaborating on an eight-unit luxury condominium building at 185 Fore St. and a five-floor office building at 16 Middle St. Both will abut the garage.
Forsley’s local investment group received the two parcels as part of a court-approved settlement stemming from a lawsuit over the ownership of the Ocean Gateway Garage, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Boston-based Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. retained ownership of the garage and the vacant lot across Fore Street, and put the properties on the market in 2014.
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