Portland councilors Monday will take up a proposed legal settlement with The Federated Companies, a Florida-based developer. The settlement promises to end a more than 14-year struggle over land in the city's Bayside neighborhood.
The land in question, along Somerset Street, was once a rail yard, then later a scrap metal business. It sits just one block from Marginal Way and Interstate 295.
In May 2011 the city agreed to sell the land to Federated for $2.3 million. Federated wanted to construct a project it called Midtown: four 16-story buildings with 800 apartments, retail space and a parking garage.
The proposal was born into controversy. The University of New England and developer David Bateman complained because they thought they were in talks with the city to build a medical and dental school on the land. And a group calling itself "Keep Maine Livable," opposed the scale of the project and sued.
In December 2014, in response to the suit, Federated scaled back its proposal to four six-story buildings. Portland's planning board approved the changes.
In June 2015, Federated proposed another change, substituting hotel rooms for apartments in two of its buildings. By then, the city said the purchase agreement had expired.
Agreements reached in 2015 turned into missed groundbreaking deadlines. Federated did close on purchase of the land in 2016 with new plans for construction to start in 2017.
To help Federated with building a parking garage, the City of Portland arranged for a federal loan. The city paid over a million dollars in interest on the loan before finally paying it off in 2023.
By February 2018, with nothing built, the city warned Federated about looming permit deadlines. The permits expired and Federated sued in August 2019. The sides have been wrestling in the courts ever since.
Now, under the proposed settlement, Portland will buy back the land at issue for $15 million.
It remains undeveloped.
