Five-story Vertical Harvest project approved for downtown

A rendering of what the Vertical Harvest building would look like. The Planning Board first saw plans for the project in September. Courtesy photo

WESTBROOK — The Vertical Harvest greenhouse, parking garage and 50-unit rental project was unanimously approved by the Planning Board Tuesday.

Construction is set to start in spring 2021. The $60 million, 300,000-square-foot Vertical Harvest project, planned to replace the Mechanic Street parking lot downtown, saw two public comments supporting the overall business but concerned about roadways during construction.

The 70,000-square-foot hydroponic greenhouse will provide upwards of 55 jobs mostly for those with mental disabilities, while producing up to a million pounds of produce. The building will run up the side of a free 400-spot parking garage with 50 rental units topping it off on the fifth floor.

MKC Properties lawyer Dave Pearson said the project will result in the loss of Family Dollar at 880 Main St., “because as a national chain it delivers all of its goods with 53-foot semi-trucks. As designed right now, they won’t access the rear of the store to deliver goods,” MKC Properties lawyer Dave Pearson said.

City Planning Director Jennie Franceschi said the city offered a 45-foot truck to Family Dollar, which could work as an alternative.

Sam Novick, who owns HUB Furniture at 900 Main St., was concerned that if the road was closed they wouldn’t be able to take deliveries.

Project designer Mark Burns said that their construction manager can work out construction times with HUB to avoid blocking their deliveries.

The city will be paying $15 million for the parking garage through an agreement using tax revenue from the project, City Economic Development Director Dan Stevenson said, meaning there will be no direct impact on taxpayers. Developers will take on $40 million of the cost and pay for maintenance of the garage which will continue to be a municipal lot.

“This is a transformational project,” Stevenson said. “Growing produce from a vertical greenhouse in downtown Westbrook demonstrates how diverse the city’s economic development has become. The project will be a catalyst for future, innovative development in the long term, while providing existing area businesses with increased foot traffic in the short term.”

According to project developer Greg Day with TDB LLC, this mixed use project is a prototype that he hopes to “take across New England.”

“I think it is going to be very nice housing,” Day said in a phone interview with the American Journal. “It is an important part of the project obviously, it ties in nicely with the garage and then the Vertical Farm. The ability to have, certainly this is one objective, the ability for the workers at the farm, the employees, to have housing right at that site they could live and work. That would be a very compelling business model.”