Jan. 13—The old-fashioned trains ambling along Portland’s southern shore will come to a halt for the next several months because of construction on a new luxury development in the East End.
The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. operates the trains as a tourist attraction for 11 months of the year, including during the annual holiday Polar Express event, paying homage to the city’s industrial history.
However, because construction of the new Portland Foreside development requires temporarily dismantling the railroad tracks, Maine Narrow Gauge has to pause tours until April.
“We’ve seen the waterfront go through a lot of change and we’re really excited for that, we love being a part of the community. We try to really make the train ride unique and inviting and appealing to people. In turn, the developer sent us a letter telling us we’re closed for three months whether we like it or not, at least that’s how it read,” said Griffin Bourassa, executive director of Maine Narrow Gauge.
Portland Foreside is a luxury 10-acre neighborhood being developed by the Prentice Organization along the city’s eastern waterfront at the site of the old Portland Company industrial complex. It will include restaurants, shops, workspaces, condos and apartments, according to the development’s website.
It will also be home to public plazas, a new 13,000-square-foot indoor market that will host local vendors and events, a new hotel and a covered parking garage — all connected to the new Fore Points Marina, which has room for as many as 12 mega yachts. The project was originally estimated to cost about $660 million and create nearly 400 new units of housing. According to the developer, construction is still in the beginning stages.
Part of the project includes moving the Eastern Promenade trail and the railroad tracks closer to the waterfront to make room for some of the new development. A spokesperson for the city confirmed that Prentice, the city and the Maine Department of Transportation have an agreement to reconstruct the trail and the rail line, which are on state-owned land, according to city property records.
When the Portland Foreside development was approved in 2016, Bourassa said Prentice told the organization that the railroad tracks would need to be temporarily dismantled for a brief period of time.
In August 2022, the Narrow Gauge board approved a two-week closure in January, when their trains don’t run anyway. Bourassa said Prentice agreed at the time that two weeks would be long enough to finish their work.
However, Bourassa said the company received word in December that the railroad would remain dismantled until April, much longer than originally anticipated and beyond what the board had approved.
Bourassa said a letter informing him of the extended closure arrived on Dec. 12 and another letter arrived just before the new year. That second letter, he said, informed him that anything left on the railroads would be considered abandoned and would be disposed of, including historic train cars.
“It felt like something out of a bad Christmas movie,” said Bourassa, describing how he opened the letter moments before handing out jingle bells at a Polar Express event.
Casey Prentice, CEO of Prentice Organization, said he was unavailable for an interview Friday but wrote in an email that he stands behind the project.
“We are committed to enhancing Portland’s waterfront for public enjoyment while balancing historic preservation and infrastructure protection. This collaboration reflects years of planning with our partners, and we’re proud to see it moving forward,” he wrote.
Prentice said the contractor handling the reconstruction of the railway, Maine Track Maintenance, needs to reset the tracks in warmer temperatures, which is why the closure is extended until April. He said his company would continue to follow the advice of the contractor when it comes to construction on the railway.
In a release late Friday night, the company’s communications director wrote that Prentice scheduled construction during the winter and spring months because “the railroad typically does not operate after the Polar Express season until the April timeframe.”
However, Bourassa said that’s not true and railroad operations typically resume in February.
The release also said Bourassa was informed of the length of the closure last April. Bourassa maintains that he was not informed until last month.
Bourassa said he met with Prentice developers this week to try and see if there might be a way to speed up the construction.
“We asked if there is anything that could be done to accelerate the construction period so we could possibly open sooner than April and the answer we got was ‘no,'” he said.
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