Developer weighs village of log cabins

As a New Hampshire-based development and hospitality company works toward completing a large redevelopment project in Bar Harbor, it is eyeing two other possible large-scale projects in Maine.

One of them is just five miles down the road in Hulls Cove. The developer, Ocean Properties Ltd., owns several acres of land at the Park Entrance Motel property that it is thinking about converting into a “rugged” village of rental log cabins.

The other is a higher profile project that Ocean Properties has been competing for on the Portland waterfront. On Wednesday, the Portland City Council’s community development committee voted 2-1 to recommend that Ocean Properties be picked for the $100 million redevelopment of the Maine State Pier, which the city owns.

“We’re very happy about it,” Robert Baldacci, Ocean Properties’ vice-president of development, said Thursday. “This was a big step for our project last night.”

Ocean Properties, founded by Bangor native Thomas Walsh, is a private firm based in Portsmouth, N.H., that owns about 90 lodging properties throughout the United States and Canada. Their competitor for the Portland project is The Olympia Companies, a Portland firm headed by Bangor native Kevin Mahaney.

A call seeking comment from The Olympia Companies about the council’s committee vote was not returned Thursday afternoon.

Baldacci said Ocean Properties’ proposal received the committee’s endorsement because of its emphasis on marine uses. It would offer high-speed ferry service up the coast to Rockland and Bar Harbor, berthing for cruise ships, a whale watch, a fish and food cooperative market, and space for other marine services such as tugboats and the Cat ferry to Canada. The project also would include a 90,000 square-foot office building, a 200-room full service hotel, a seafood restaurant and more than seven acres on the pier and surrounding properties of publicly-accessible green space, he said.

The selection for the pier project is not final, however. Baldacci said there will be workshops and public hearings over the next several weeks, before the Portland City Council takes a final vote on a developer on Aug. 20.

In Bar Harbor, Ocean Properties owns five hotel properties, including the Holiday Inn Regency Hotel and the Harborside Hotel & Marina on West Street. It also owns the Samoset Resort in Rockport, the Fairfield Inn in Bangor, and other hotels in Bath and South Portland.

Over the past several years, Ocean Properties has been working in Bar Harbor to redevelop four acres of land at the Harborside property and the adjacent Bar Harbor Club.

Several times, however, the company has been at loggerheads with local municipal officials about whether it has received all the proper permits for work it has done at the hotel and club sites. According to Bar Harbor Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain, there still are outstanding work permit issues at both properties.

Eben Salvatore, the company’s director of operations in Bar Harbor, said Thursday that major construction work at the hotel and club are expected to wind down in the near future.

Where the company turns its development attention next might depend on the Portland project, he said, but it could decide to redevelop the Park Entrance Motel property in Hulls Cove next year. Having acquired the motel in 2001, Ocean Properties recently acquired a piece of land between the hotel and Route 3 that would be part of the redevelopment project.

“We’re wrapping up on West Street,” he said. “That may be our next one.”

Salvatore said the company has not decided exactly how it hopes to renovate the 11-acre property, but it envisions a large log-cabin-style lodge with smaller, single-family log cabins surrounding it. The smaller cabins – accessible by paths from a central parking area – would be rented out for several days or a week at a time and would be geared toward larger gatherings, such as family reunions or weddings.

“The property itself is very exciting in its potential, which makes it hard to pick a direction,” Salvatore said. “We don’t have an exact schedule [for redevelopment].”

Salvatore said the company feasibly could try to acquire additional adjacent properties to increase the scope of the project.

“We certainly have enough to get started,” he said. “The [existing] hotel most definitely isn’t going anywhere this winter.”