People here in Portland are beginning to take notice of Kerry Anderson.

The Scarborough developer has already made a splash in his hometown, having undertaken the construction of a high-density, “smart growth” mini-neighborhood there with over 200 housing units and several parks. Anderson was also an early partner in Scarborough Gallery, the commercial development just south of Interstate 295 where a Lowe’s home improvement store and a Wal-Mart Supercenter are expected to open next year.

Despite their size, neither of those projects put Anderson on Portland’s radar. Even after he bought a block of property on downtown Congress Street two years ago – and began converting artist studios into luxury condominiums in the heart of the Arts District – few people (aside from the displaced artists) took note of this newcomer. (His partner in the Congress block project, local real estate broker and commercial landlord Tom Moulton, got most of the press attention.)

That’s not the case anymore. Several months ago, Anderson acquired another, larger block of property in downtown Portland – this one diagonally across from the Cumberland County Civic Center. The bright red Irish pub, Brian BorA?o, sits on part of this block, facing Center Street, surrounded by a dirt parking lot. A few other bar/restaurants and some offices face Fore and Cotton streets.

The regulars at BorA?o know who Anderson is now: the guy who made the pub’s owners shrink their patio by a couple feet this summer because its fence was encroaching on his property line. He’s also known as the guy who wants to buy the bar and turn it into a pile of bright red bricks. Suffice it to say, he’s not the toast of the pub these days.

Laurence Kelly, one of three partners who own Brian BorA?o, said Anderson “wanted to buy us out and destroy the building,” but that he and his partners are not willing to sell at this point. Aside from a tiny corner of the lot owned by the city, the spot of land BorA?o occupies is the only piece of the block Anderson does not own.

Anderson declined to discuss his ideas for the property when The Bollard reached him for comment last month, but Kelly said Anderson’s spoken of building a complex of sorts on the site, potentially including a hotel, condos, offices and/or retail space.

Anderson’s land purchase has also come to the attention of two members of the Civic Center’s Board of Trustees: attorney and board vice-chairman Neil Pratt, and Shipyard Brewing Co. president Fred Forsley. (Forsley is also a developer, a principal in the company set to build a complex of offices, condos, townhouses, retail space and parking between his brewery and the Ocean Gateway cruise ship facility under construction on the city’s eastern waterfront.)

Pratt said he and Forsley have informally discussed the potential for development on Anderson’s property to “improve the Civic Center experience and enhance the economy generally.” In theory, Pratt said, that could even take the form of a new Civic Center across the street. The board is still committed to replacing the three-decade-old Civic Center with a new facility, but questions concerning its location and financing remain major obstacles.

By all accounts, discussion of the BorA?o block’s development is in a very early stage, and anything is possible. Construction of a new Civic Center, for example, could be a decade away, Pratt noted.

“My feeling is, nothing will happen and it’ll be a dirt parking lot for the next 10 years,” said Kelly, perhaps with more optimism than foresight.

With this latest land acquisition, however, there’s no doubt Anderson is on the map in Portland. The only question now is how he’ll change it.

Chris Busby is editor of The Bollard, a free, online publication. For more on these stories and other Portland news, visit www.thebollard.com.