6 minute read
The Waterfront South Portland's Shell Game. By M. Reed Bergstein.
By M. Reed Bergstein
It all goes back to World War Two. The South Portland waterfront was booming. Liberty ships by the score were built and fitted, swelling the ranks of the North Atlantic Fleet stationed in Casco Bay. In 1941, by special act of Congress, the Portland Pipeline was built as a means of safely transporting millions of gallons of crude oil from the tanker ships overland to the refineries at Montreal. Sea lanes to the St. Lawrence were threatened by V-boat submarines of the German navy, and South Portland was a critical link in ensuring a steady supply of black crude-the lifeblood of the War.
Things are decidedly quieter on the South Portland waterfront these days, although echoes of wartime can stillbe heard. While the postwar industrial explosion isprobably gone for good, the Portland Pipeline Corporation is still intact and very much alive, pumping on an average more than 50,000 barrels per day through two virtually underground trunk lines, 237 miles to Montreal, Canada.
Operation of this complex hydraulic system falls under the purview of Canadian-based Montreal Pipe Line Limited, owners of the Portland Pipeline Corporation in South Portland. Wallace R. McGrew, president, has steered the company through many of the mystifying and sometimes cataclysmic fluctuations in global oilsupply and demand.
Right now, demand is soft. World prices have fallen, and conservation measures have had effect (no one I know still drives a twelve-cylinder Packard to get groceries at Shaw's). The Pipeline is pumping at less than capacity, but McGrew sees this as a temporary stabilization and predicts an increase in the Pipeline's use during the next five to seven years.
A factor inthis increase willcome, he feels, in part because of depletion of reserves in western Canada, and the result ofproduction ofcrude oilfrom the Hibernia reserves, underwater offNewfoundland.
With the Pipeline's present activities somewhat diminished, rumors have perhaps understandably washed along the South Portland waterfront that the Pipeline's days are numbered, that pressure from the developers willherald the sellout of the company's prime harborside real estate, some ofwhich ishome to the huge tank farms that are visible from land and sea (and enjoyed a cameo appearance in an early-1960's television episode of "Route 66," filmed in part on the harbor).
McCourt's Breakwater at Spring Point as it will look in the late summer of 1987.
Wallace McGrew is.thefirstto take umbrage at this suggestion. "We willneed allof our current waterfront property and facilities to accommodate future demand and growth," he says. While certain Portland interior decorators may be pondering conversion ofthe oiltanks into eclectic living space (where can you get an BO-foot-roundPersian rug?), McGrew has made clear his views in a statement before South Portland Mayor DiPietro and the City Council: "Our facility provides the shortest and least costly route for crude to reach eastern and central Canada," he told them. "It is the only pipeline like it on the east coast, and it is unlikely anyone willever build one to compete with it or replace it. Today' s cost would make that all but impossible."
Even as he makes firmhis support of industrial and marine use of the South
Portland waterfront, developers continue building residential projects on waterfront space that can be measured in inches.
Ironically, at the mouth ofthe harbor at Spring Point, a smail Boston-based development company is proceeding wellon schedule with a sizable residential project located on a 55-acre parcel directly adjacent to the Pipeline's crude oil discharge pier.
The McCourt Company, Inc., is planning for late summer-19B 7 completion of The Breakwaters at Spring
Point, their B-storey, 154-unit brickcondominium mid-rise and 20-unit townhouse development taking shape on the spot where the Liberty Ships were born. The German submarines are gone now - sunk, mostly - but the mildewed remnants of then-prime cement bunker space had to be wrestled apart in order to begin construction.
Designed by Terrien Architects of Portland, with general construction by the Pizzagalli company, The Breakwaters willinclude 99 one-bedroom and 55 two-bedroom units in the mid-rise, priced from $70,000 to $145,000, with more tharr haIf of the units under $100,000.
The 20 townhouses down on the water's edge willbe three-storey, threebedroom shingle homes, with garage parking, spacious f1oorplans, and e. nough decks and turrets to inspire any waterfront poet withbetween $215,000 and $260,000 to invest in a saltwater domicile.
Future plans call for the eventual development of a "village" setting on the site that was "somewhat in disrepair," McCourt says, "and go in and really make something that looks good that we can all be proud of...actually improve the environment and improve the neighborhood, and make a contri-
b· ubon."
McCourt Company Vice President ofOperations Austin P. Regolino is equally excited
about the quality and setting at Breakwater. ''The South Portland sitewas selected because of just the general strength of the economy in the Portland area," he comments, "and also it's a once-in-alifetimeopportunity to acquire 55 acres right on Casco Bay. We felt it was one of the strongest locations we had ever seen and ... we were really surprised that a site that size and that ideally located would be available."
Terry McCourt stresses his company's intention to be "good neighbors," for example arranging public access to waterfront areas of The Breakwaters. Founded in 1893 by his great-grandfather, McCourt is proud of the company's history and quality of work. "We take things seriously," he says. "We really do put our lives into it, to do something that's special."
Austin Regolino agrees. "We look at things in terms of generations," Regolino says. "This is a family company, and we are fourth-generation now, so we tend to look at :things in the longterm view ... We've made a commitment on this particular project - we'll be (at The Breakwaters) for probably 10 to 12 years - so ifwe're going to be inthe area for 10 to 12 years itwould be nice to develop some other properties, I aso. " "That really fits with our company . strategy," Terry McCourt adds, "to try and focus on an area and really live it, get to know everybody ... "
Wallace McGrew of the Portland Pipeline views the future of the waterfront differently. His comments before Mayor DiPietro and the South Portland City Council were to the point. "Our concern is this," he told them. "Once the remaining undeveloped land in the Industrial Zone is filled with private homes, many of the new propertyowners, or their successors, may decide they don't like living next door to a petroleum terminal with its inherent sounds, sights, and smells. Many of them willalso own boats in the growing marina facilities and may not like the danger of nearby tugs and tankers. At somepointthese dozens, even hundreds, ofnewvoters and taxpayers may decide it is time to change the Industrial Zone to a Residential Zone. It is true that if they were successful, the Pipeline and other existing industrial activities could remain - at least for a while. But they would become, legally speaking, non-
f·
con ormmg uses. "
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