Red Cross donation center in Portland gets $4.5M upgrade to enhance services

PHOTO / COURTESY AMERICAN RED CROSS At the ribbon cutting, from left, Andree Baylor-Lloyd, Colin Britton, Uchizi Phakati, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, U.S. Sen. Angus King, Trevor Riggen and Stephanie Couturier.

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By Tina Fischer

The Portland donor center of the American Red Cross of Northern New England has undergone a $4.5 million renovation to its facility at 524 Forest Ave.

Federal, state and local officials, along with hundreds of Red Cross volunteers and employees, celebrated with a ribbon cutting on Monday, Oct. 6.

The project was the first major upgrade to the biomedical facility in 44 years. The renovations streamlined the blood collection and distribution process at the center, which serves 24 hospitals and treatment centers in Maine.

The upgrades also enhanced training capabilities, increased the facility’s capacity for disaster response supplies and strengthened Red Cross operations throughout the state.

In the past fiscal year, the Red Cross collected more than 45,500 blood products in Maine and held more than 2,200 blood drives.

U.S. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, attended the ribbon cutting.

“The new building and equipment we celebrate today are important. But they mean nothing without the dedication and compassion of nearly 300,000 American Red Cross volunteers who step forward in times of crisis and the 6.8 million heroes who donate blood each year," Collins said.

In FY2022, Collins helped secure $871,000 in health and human services funding to support repairs and upgrades to the Forest Avenue facility.