In a contentious meeting Monday evening, the Portland City Council approved a preliminary agreement between the city and The Olympia Company for the continuing development of the Maine State Pier. The 7-1 vote set final contract talks in motion and came after eight long months of negotiations.
Critics of the plan focused specifically on the $18 million loan granted Olympia from the Finance Authority of Maine to fund repairs to the aging pier. According to the agreement Olympia will not be required to pay rent for the first 20 years of its 75-year lease.
Although a claim was made that Olympia received no tax breaks in the deal, it is hard to understand how a 20-year rent abatement is not considered a public subsidy. This entire project has been decided along political lines, with little regard for what is best for the city and decisions such as this, and the ensuing criticism from all sides, should not be a surprise.
The negotiating team also drew fire for its decision to remove the construction of a deep-water berth from the project. The mega berth was added on to the state pier plan at the 11th hour, only weeks before it was approved in the fall.
The negotiating team considered granting the developer access to additional city-owned land east of the pier – land not included in the original request for bid proposals – as a way to make the deep-water berth work with the state pier project. The team, however, determined that this was outside the scope of original bid request.
As we move forward, it will be interesting to see if this important project gets started, let along completed.
Posted by: Michael Sosnowski
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Maine Waterfront
Portland
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