SCARBOROUGH — The Sprague Corporation notified the town of Scarborough and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection today that it will not proceed with their proposed Black Point Beach project.

Planning and development cost projections had escalated to the point that it would no longer be financially prudent to continue the project, according to Seth Sprague, president of The Sprague Corporation and manager of Black Point Resource Management LLC.

“It is a great disappointment to our family to have to make this decision,” Sprague said in a statement. “While creating a new beach park may not have been the ‘highest and best use’ for our 64-acre beach front parcel, we felt improving access to Scarborough Beach was a worthy goal and a use of our property that fit well with our mission.

“Regrettably, the economics of our proposed project could not survive the rigors of the public process. Over the last 14 months, each and every step of the process has resulted in added costs and reduced viability. We believe, that had we persisted, we would have received the final permits required, overcome any legal challenges, and created a facility for Scarborough and the greater Portland area of which we would have been proud. Unfortunately that is not enough to overcome the financial realities.”

As proposed, the new beach park would have been located just north of Scarborough Beach State Park and would have accommodated as many as 900 people at high tide.

As recently as Jan. 9, residents of Black Point Road and the Prouts Neck neighborhood had voiced their opposition at a Scarborough Planning Board hearing, saying that the proposed beachfront park with a 370-car parking lot would destroy the quality of life in one of the town’s most rural and scenic neighborhoods.