Portland Yacht Services owner Phineas Sprague Jr. is moving forward with his plan to expand his new boatyard on the Portland waterfront.
Sprague has submitted plans to the Portland Planning Board to construct a 30,250-square-foot steel building with a maximum height of 45 feet. The building would provide space for the boatyard’s offices, a parts room and a retail store selling marine-related products, Sprague said.
“The vision is to create a marine-related complex down here,” said Sprague, who eventually plans to build a series of marine-related buildings along the West Commercial Street site.
Sprague said the Planning Board must approve the site plan, but he is not asking for any zoning variances. He hopes to begin work in the fall and continue through the winter, with the goal of occupying the building in March 2016. The Planning Board must also review the plan to ensure that it complies with the city’s waterfront zoning, which requires that all development in the area be marine-related.
The proposal calls for grading and stabilizing about 8 acres of the 17-acre site to provide more space for boat storage.
On Monday, city planning staff began distributing the plans to city staff for review. The Planning Board has not scheduled a date for taking up the proposal.
In 2012, the board approved a similar Sprague plan for adjacent land situated closer to the Casco Bay Bridge. However, the state took a significant portion of that land from Sprague using its power of eminent domain so it could expand the International Marine Terminal. As a result, Sprague acquired additional land to the west as part of a complicated land deal involving the state and Pan Am Railways.
Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:
Twitter: TomBellPortland
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