Governor Janet Mills was on site for the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Maine International Cold Storage Facility. The large new warehouse will dominate a relatively small lost across from Eimskip’s shipping container terminal on Portland’s western waterfront.
The 107,000-square-foot building will bring a massive amount of cold storage to Commercial Street. The Maine Department of Transportation backed the project for years to support Maine business and commercial fishing. According to a report prepared by the University of Southern Maine, the project could generate an economic impact of between $500 and $900 million annually.
In 2020, dozens of residents from the West End and Western Promenade neighborhoods signed a letter to the planning board opposing the project. They sighted the lack of maritime demand for the project and concerns for increased trucking traffic on West Commercial Street. From a circulated draft of the letter:
“The massive disconnect between warehouse size and maritime demand should concern anyone examining this proposal for the Waterfront Port Development Zone [WPDZ]. It is impossible to reconcile how this warehouse, with almost entirely non-waterborne cargo, could be considered ‘compatible with water dependent and marine uses,’ as required of conditional WPDZ uses.”
Amber Infrastructure Group is developing the facility in partnership with Treadwell Franklin Infrastructure. Americold, a refrigerated storage company that currently operates a facility elsewhere in Portland, was the first project lead. They cancelled their plans in 2018 after a contentious planning process. The Portland Planning Board approved the project in its current form earlier this year. Construction will continue through 2024. The state contributed $8 million to prepare the property. The project is leasing state land.
