Courtesy / Maine Realty Advisors
Built in 1807, 160-166 State St. has Italianate features like this painted ceiling and handcrafted woodwork.
June 28, 2019
Affordable housing planned for former nunnery in Portland's West End
Courtesy / Maine Realty Advisors
The buyer of 160-166 State St., a former nunnery in Portland’s West End, plans to redevelop it as affordable housing.
The purchase of a Portland building dating back to 1807 will go toward the creation of affordable housing.
Josh Soley, principal of Maine Realty Advisors in Portland, purchased 160-166 State St., a former nunnery in Portland’s West End, from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portland for $1.66 million. Maine Realty Advisors represented Soley. Joe Malone and Jennifer Small of Malone represented the seller. The transaction closed June 12.
Soley said he plans to develop the 12,500-square-foot building over the next two years as 39 affordable housing units. His initial thought was to possibly develop the housing for veterans. But with the recent influx of immigrants into Portland, he’s now considering developing it for immigrant housing.
The development is part of a three-phase affordable housing project he has in the works.
In February, Soley purchased a 19th century building at 54 Maple St. in Portland, with plans to redevelop it as a 16-room halfway house.
That project is in the permitting stage, he said.
And adjacent to 160-166 State St., he purchased a developable lot at 99 Winter St., where he plans 40 workforce housing units.
“Affordable housing is something that our city needs,” he said. “Developers need to dictate this. If anything, the city and its elongated permitting process have seriously hurt the development of affordable housing.”
The 160-166 State St. building features handcrafted ceilings and other historic architectural elements, including Italianate doors, stained glass windows and ornate carvings.
“Our goal is to preserve as much of it as possible,” Soley said.
There was active interest in the property when it went on the market last fall, said Malone.
160-166 State St. is a three-story Greek Revival building built in 1807 as private residence for Prentiss Mellen, a Massachusetts native who settled in Portland around 1806, became a U.S. senator for Massachusetts, and later became a chief justice of the Supreme Court of Maine when Maine achieved statehood.
The house was later the home of William Pitt Fessenden, a Maine legislator and U.S. senator who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Abraham Lincoln.
In 1934, the building was sold to the Bishop of Portland.
It then became home, for 84 years, to the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood, a contemplative, Catholic religious order. The monastery originally housed up to 14 sisters. But in recent years, the order declined to two sisters. Last fall, the two nuns moved to the Monastery of the Precious Blood in Manchester, N.H., where the order was founded.
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