Stonington ramp project advances Panel hires firm to develop site for water access

STONINGTON – Plans are moving ahead on redevelopment of the Colwell property on the town’s waterfront.

The Colwell Ramp Committee last week hired Design Group Collaborative, an architectural firm from Ellsworth, to redevelop the property, which includes a two-story building, a granite ramp and a wharf.

The committee, working with Penobscot East Resource Center, will oversee the project. It is composed of representatives from the towns of Isle au Haut and Stonington, which jointly purchased the Colwell property in 1999 in an effort to provide public access to the water.

The center – a locally-based nonprofit organization working to preserve a future for fishing communities in Maine – holds an option to develop the building.

Redeveloping the property will have a positive impact for both towns, according to Robin Alden, executive director at Penobscot East.

“It has the potential to be transformative for Stonington and the surrounding area, creating knowledge-based jobs that are linked to our fishing economy,” Alden said. “It will ensure that fishermen and marine science have a permanent place on Stonington’s waterfront.”

DGC already has marine experience in Maine. A chief DGC architect was involved in the design for the Gulf of Maine Research Institute on the Portland waterfront, and the firm also is working on the Marine Environmental Research Institute Center for Marine Studies project in Blue Hill.

“We were impressed with the architects,” said Stonington Selectman John Steed, a ramp committee member. “They seemed really concerned with meeting the basic needs of everyone who will be using the property.”

The ramp and wharf would provide public access to the ocean from the land and from the water to the land. Isle au Haut residents are anxious to improve those facilities to make it easier to transport freight between the two towns, Steed said.

Penobscot East plans to convert the building to house a marine laboratory, a classroom and meeting room, exhibit space and offices for the center and other community organizations.

The question of whether to remodel or build a new building will be one of the first that has to be answered.

“That’s still on the table,” Steed said. “We have to assess moving it, remodeling or building new in a new location. That’s going to be one of the first decisions we have to make.”

The ramp committee plans to meet with the architects early in May to discuss the project with stakeholders from both towns, the center and the local fishing community.

By midsummer, DGC should have some preliminary sketches ready for review, Steed said. Those drawings will be used to attract funding for the project.

Preliminary estimates put the costs at between $1 million and $1.5 million. The largest costs, those related to the building, will be handled by Penobscot East, Steed said.

He noted, however, that the two towns and the center will be working together to attract project funding.

“The three will be applying for funding together,” he said. “That makes for a powerful application. They [funding agencies] like to see that a lot of people are on board.”

Depending on the final designs and funding availability, it could take about two years to complete the project with the work on the building taking the longest to complete.

It may be possible, Steed said, to make improvements to the ramp and to make the wharf usable again earlier on in the process.