Vermont construction firm, bullish on southern Maine market, opens Portland office

Photo / Tim Greenway From left, Bryan Plourde of the Dunham Group with Taylor Woodward and Matt Wheaton, president and executive vice president respectively of DEW Construction Corp., in the lobby of 2 Market St., Portland.

Write a Comment

By Laurie Schreiber

DEW Construction Corp., with offices in Manchester and Keene, N.H., and Williston, Vt., opened an office in Portland as it expands operations into Maine.

DEW leased 3,500 square feet of office space on the fourth floor of 2 Market St. in the Old Port neighborhood.

Bryan Plourde of the Dunham Group and Steve Baumann of Compass Commercial Brokers brokered the deal.

“We’re excited about expanding our services into Portland,” said Taylor Woodward, the company’s president.

The building, on the corner of Commercial and Market streets, goes by the address 161 Commercial St. It's anchored by LeRoux Kitchen, a kitchen and home products store.

DEW’s address is 2 Market St.

‘Quintessential’ space

In addition to being a broker on the transaction, Baumann is co-owner of the building with Portland developer Jonathan Cohen.

The two bought the building, known as the Moulton Block, in 2021 as an investment in the center of the Old Port’s waterfront area.

The six-story, 16,379-square-foot, Greek Revival building, with ground-floor retail and upper-story offices, dates back to 1850 and includes its own small parking lot, a significant feature with more new development taking over surface lots in Portland. It was renovated from top to bottom in 2001.

“It’s that quintessential Old Port office space,” said Baumann.

After acquiring the property in 2021, Baumann and Cohen had some work done to ensure its future longevity, including extensive repointing of the brickwork and improvements to the roof and common areas.

At that time, the fourth floor was available for lease and a tenant, a brokerage firm called the Bean Group, immediately came along, said Baumann. DEW came into the market just as the Bean Group was getting ready to move.

“Without missing a day, DEW took over that space, right after the Bean Group moved out,” he said. “That’s a testament to that building being a desirable space.”

Back-to-back showings

Plourde represented DEW and worked with Woodward as well as Brian Gallagher and Matthew Wheaton, DEW’s director of business development and executive vice president respectively.

DEW reached out to Plourde’s office last summer.

Plourde and DEW executives “set up numerous days of tours where they would travel up from New Hampshire and Vermont, and we would have back-to-back showings of numerous spaces until we identified the features in our market that were right for them,” said Plourde. “We spent quite a bit of time and, at the last minute, Steve Baumann and I connected on the idea of a larger space that might offer a business connection to future project, as well. This meeting of the minds ended up working well for everyone.”

Maine opportunity

Established in 1997, DEW provides construction management, design/build and general contracting services for projects of all sizes.

It started in Williston, Vt., near Burlington. About 12 years ago, the company acquired a similar firm in Keene, N.H., where it served southwest New Hampshire, southern Vermont and northern Massachusetts.

A few years later, DEW opened an office in Manchester, N.H., to service the seacoast region.

Through conversations with the Maine-based development community, DEW determined there was an opportunity to expand its presence into Maine, said Woodward.

That was borne out by contracts in southern and western Maine.

two people on brick sidewalk outside brick buildings

Photo / Tim Greenway

Matt Wheaton, left, and Taylor Woodward outside 2 Market St., with the DEW sign behind them.

In 2021, DEW completed a project at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Portland, where the company renovated five floors of 124 existing guest room suites and corridors. In 2022, DEW completed an 11,880-square-foot renovation to the hotel's ground level while it was still operating.

Since early 2022, DEW has been working on various projects at the Grand Summit Hotel and the Jordan Hotel at the Sunday River ski resort. The focus is to update the facilities and public spaces at these hotels. DEW is currently working on the Jordan Hotel renovations, which is expected to be completed this spring.

A recently completed project, for Boston developer Jones Street Residential Inc., is Seacoast Residences at 41 Seacoast Terrace in Kittery, involving the construction of a major apartment complex with 282 market-rate units across four 4-story apartment buildings, visible from I-95 and not far from the Piscataqua River.

$200M in revenue

Cohen Properties LLC selected DEW Construction as its construction manager for a new commercial and office building at 70 Thames St. in Portland. The building will consist of three stories with a total area of approximately 65,000 square feet. The project is expected to begin this summer. The building will primarily offer Class A office space.

With a growing suite of Maine-based projects and more Maine-based employees, it made sense to open a Maine office, said Woodward.

DEW has about 130 employees overall, and at any given time, the company has about 30 projects underway, primarily in Vermont and New Hampshire, with a growing number in Maine, and northern Massachusetts.

Revenue growth trends put the company at around $200 million for annual volume.

The 2 Market St. location has modern amenities, individual offices, and conference and meeting rooms.

Woodward said he expects to do more hiring for the Maine market, and added, “but in a careful way that does not compromise the company’s culture.”

He continued, “Our goal is to responsibly grow within this market. The team that we have is excellent and can support the projects we’ve secured, so we are well balanced in that regard. It’s important to us that our culture remains intact, so as we expand and recruit more people, we will be spending a lot of time vetting those people to make sure they are in alignment with our culture and our brand.”

He added, “I think people really enjoy working with us, and that is a direct result of our team. I want to make sure it stays that way.”