Courtesy / City of Portland
An aerial photo shows the former Fort McKinley Hospital on Great Diamond Island, Portland.
Updated: April 5, 2022
Diamond in the rough? Portland may sell its last portion of historic island fort complex
Courtesy / Fort McKinley Museum
The city of Portland may solicit bids to purchase and redevelop the former Fort McKinley Hospital building, shown here in 1903.
Courtesy / City of Portland
A 2019 view of the Fort McKinley Hospital building on Great Diamond Island.
By William Hall
An almost-forgotten structure in Portland — the last city-owned property in a former island military complex, and the last part that hasn’t been redeveloped — may soon be for sale.
The City Council’s Housing and Economic Development Committee on Tuesday will consider whether to solicit proposals for buying and reusing the former Fort McKinley Hospital, on Great Diamond Island, about 2 miles off the Portland waterfront.
The 5,300-square-foot, three-story brick building was once a U.S. Army medical facility that held patient beds, offices, a dental exam room and a surgical operating suite. But the hospital has sat vacant for decades — and shows it.
Windows are boarded up or missing, roofing needs repair and the building is nearly invisible, shrouded by overgrown bushes and trees.
It’s also surrounded by Diamond Cove, a private, gated community of million-dollar houses and townhouses.
They’re the creation of developer David Bateman, of Portland-based Bateman Properties LLC, who in the 1980s began buying the 111-acre fort’s real estate and converting it into dozens of homes. Then, in 2007, after the city had foreclosed on the hospital building and a former barracks, he paid $1 for the rights to acquire them. The barracks eventually became a 44-room resort, the Inn at Diamond Cove.
But the hospital building and its purchase rights lay dormant for another decade; the option expired in 2019. Meanwhile, the Inn at Diamond Cove sold last year to a New Hampshire hotel ownership group for an undisclosed price, along with the Portland Harbor Hotel, which Bateman also developed.
Now the city says it’s time to find a better use for the hospital, which was built in 1903 as the United States girded up Fort McKinley in the wake of the Spanish-American War. The fort later protected Portland Harbor during two world wars. The hospital has been vacant since the 1960s, when the fort was sold privately.
Since Bateman's option ended, workload and staff turnover have prevented Portland from selling the hospital property sooner, said Greg Mitchell, former director of economic development who is working as a consultant to the city on the sale.
“The strong residential market is the reason to advance this now,” he told Mainebiz. The city has already received interest in the property, he added.
The hospital building and the ground it stands on are assessed at $375,000, according to tax rolls. The city expects to receive fair market value plus past-due taxes of $150,000 and another $30,000 for maintenance.
"Creative, adaptive commercial or residential uses or mixed use of the existing buildings, compatible with Diamond Cove, are welcomed to return this property to productive use," a draft request-for-proposals reads.
The building is included in the Fort McKinley National Register Historic District and is designated as a contributing structure within Portland’s local historic district. Alterations to the site would be subject to review under a historic preservation ordinance, and cooperation with the Diamond Cove Homeowners Association will be a key element in the selection of any proposal, the RFP says.
At today’s meeting, the Housing and Economic Development Committee is scheduled to hear public comments on the RFP and then to vote on a recommendation to the full City Council, which would be responsible for approving the bid request.
The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. and more information can be found here.
Courtesy / Fort McKinley Museum
A photo taken in the 1980s of the Fort McKinley Hospital building, on Great Diamond Island in Portland.
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments