Portland Museum of Art to buy adjacent properties

aerial view of properties on Free Street next to Portland Museum of Art

Provided photo The Portland Museum of Art plans to buy four adjacent properties on Free Street currently owned by MaineHealth.

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By Tina Fischer

The Portland Museum of Art plans to buy four properties along Free Street to add much-needed parking and free up more of the museum building for gallery space as expansion plans take shape.

The properties are all owned by MaineHealth. They include MaineHealth’s corporate headquarters, at 110 Free St., a retail building and two parking lots with a total of 172 spaces.

According to the Malone Commercial Brokers listing, the total asking price was $16 million; the purchase price was not disclosed. It lists an assessed valuation of $13.3 million and notes that 110 Free St. underwent a $15 million renovation in 2010.

MaineHealth will continue to occupy 110 Free St. for at least two years as part of a lease-back clause in the purchase and sale agreement.

The deal is expected to close in March.

MaineHealth’s decision

MaineHealth decided earlier this year to put its corporate offices at 110 Free St. on the market, along with the neighboring parking lots, “as part of an effort to make more effective use of its administrative offices across the region,” the statement said.

The purchase comes on the heels of the recent demolition of 142 Free St., the now-razed building that was next door to the museum. The PMA plans to build a 60,000-square-foot addition on that site and has raised $65 million toward a $100 million goal.

No timetable has been announced for construction of the new museum wing, but Jack Soley, a member of the museum’s board who chairs the construction advisory committee, told Mainebiz that the project is still “110% happening.”

“It will be years, but not many years,” he said.

Soley also said that while there have been conversations with MaineHealth for years, it wasn’t until recently that the organization decided to sell.

‘Parking, parking, parking’

Solely said the addition of nearby parking for the PMA will be critically important.

“The biggest issue for our visitors is parking, parking, parking. We hear it over and over again,” he said.

The opportunity to harvest administrative space in the current museum building for added gallery space is also key to the purchase.

Soley told Mainebiz that since the announcement of plans for the new wing, the museum has had “an astounding amount of art donated, more than in the history of the PMA.”

Soley said the museum has had to use off-site storage for the donations, and that the 110 Free St. building (a former Sears Roebuck store) has a loading dock and lower-level storage space that will be instrumental in managing the expanded collection.

'Rare opportunity’

Mark Bessire, executive director of the PMA, said the properties create the conditions for art and community to thrive together.

"Because they’re so close to our current footprint, they offer a rare opportunity for the future of the museum to grow in ways that directly connect Portland’s creative spirit and the arts for generations to come,” he said.

142 Free St.

Greater Portland Landmarks, which had opposed the demolition of 142 Free St. for a new museum wing, criticized the museum’s four-property purchase.

“It is outrageous to consider that this purchase was possible while the museum ignored our calls not to demolish 142 Free St. until gaining approval for what would replace it within the Congress Street Historic District,” said Kate Lemos McHale, the group’s executive director.

“With the additional property, PMA could have moved and/or repurposed the former Children’s Museum for the intended office space they now plan to build on their expansive new property,” she noted. “Instead, Portland has lost the opportunity to revitalize a historic building within a modern expansion of the museum, which was the positive outcome we so strongly advocated for.”

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