PORTLAND — A partner in a project to create market-rate housing and a new 15-room hotel on Congress Street said the work will give new life to an old site. Denovo LLC plans to convert the former Hay & Peabody funeral home at 749 Congress St. to a hotel with a restaurant, and build seven townhouses […]

PORTLAND — City properties could soon provide a platform for better cell phone reception, according to City Manager Jon Jennings and Councilor David Brenerman. “We are interested in working with various companies in expanding cellular coverage for our residents and visitors,” Jennings said July 8. His remarks came three days after the City Council Economic Development […]

PORTLAND — A U.S. Department of Transportation grant is expected to fund half of a $15.4 million expansion at the burgeoning International Marine Terminal. The Maine Department of Transportation grant proposal, which still faces review by Congress, anticipates a second crane, added piers, new offices and maintenance buildings, and enhanced railroad crossings west of the terminal […]

PORTLAND — Members of an ad hoc committee assigned to review a $70.6 million bond proposal to rebuild four city elementary schools are ready for more work, beginning with a July 18 City Council workshop. “I am extremely hopeful we will continue to move forward. I have been on the board eight years and we have […]

PORTLAND — In an effort to promote access to science, the Portland Public Library has started letting families take home something other than books. The library recently launched a program that lends backpacks filled with tools to help children explore the outdoors and become citizen scientists. There are six different Family Science Backpacks, with themes […]

PORTLAND — Councilor David Brenerman sees a need for a new city office to help immigrants and refugees assimilate in Portland, and sees a wider need it can address. “I don’t think the role will necessarily to provide services, but to act as a convener,” Brenerman said July 6, a day after the City Council Economic […]

PORTLAND — From small, independent neighborhood breweries to household names like Shipyard, craft brewing has become a major industry in southern Maine. But starting a beer-related business – whether it’s a brewery, a farm for ingredients like hops, or a distributor of goods – can be difficult. Knowing where to get ingredients and materials, as […]

PORTLAND — A one-hour bus ride around East Bayside last week showed how the neighborhood is redeveloping, and how much of it is hampered by contamination from an industrial past. “We are following the risk-takers into the neighborhood,” Caroline Paras, community and economic planner at Greater Portland Council of Governments, said during the June 30 tour. […]