PORTLAND — A Portland-based developer broke ground last week on Furman Block, a mixed-use building featuring street-level artists’ studios and gallery space, along with 51 mixed-income, age 55+ apartments above.  The building will be built on a former gravel lot that Public Works had used for parking at the corner of Kennebec and Parris streets.

The Szanton Company has developed three other mixed-income apartment buildings on the peninsula, but none in the last decade and never before in Bayside. The company is partnering with Bayside redevelopment pioneer Ross Furman, who will own and manage the artists’ studios and gallery space.

“So many exciting things are happening in the Bayside neighborhood of Portland right now. It’s meaningful to be a part of it,” Szanton Company President Nathan Szanton said.

The building is projected to open in the late fall 2020.