A Portland development company wants to build what would become Maine’s tallest building in the city’s Old Port.

East Brown Cow and Safdie Architects on Tuesday unveiled their design vision for the Canal Plaza Block in the Old Port. The project, known as Old Port Square, would transform a 4-acre site with two new buildings and include retail, restaurants, hotels, residences, offices, parking and outdoor community space.

“Old Port Square was born from this idea that we could fix what was torn asunder and enhance with modern architecture that could also speak to where Portland, and Maine, is going,” East Brown Cow President Tim Soley said in a statement. “This new identity, Old Port Square, simply puts a name to this district that is already vibrant, active and thriving.”

Soley called the unveiling of the plans “a momentous milestone for our project team, the city and all of Maine.” He said the project will honor history and engage the community in “thoughtful dialogue.”

A NEW TALLEST BUILDING

The vision for Old Port Square includes two new buildings designed by Safdie Architects, including a 30-story, 380-foot residential and hospitality tower at 45 Union St.

The proposed new tower would include a publicly accessible sky lobby and restaurant with 360-degree views of Casco Bay.

“Portland is a city with a powerful history and heritage. Designing a tower in a city that’s generally low rise, at the heart of downtown, we asked ourselves: what are the elements that are going to make this really belong to Portland?” said Moshe Safdie, Safdie Architects’ founding partner.

“The project’s breakthrough was the day we latched onto the idea that this is a beacon. It’s a lighthouse in the tradition of the lighthouses of Portland, those slender, beautiful structures that rise out of the land or out of the water, that become icons in the landscape for good purpose.”

The almost 400-foot building would be Maine’s tallest building by far. The current tallest building is the state — 201 Federal St. in Portland — is just over 200 feet tall.

The Federal Street apartment building, The Casco, was completed in 2023 and so has held the title for about two years.

Maine cities typically aren’t known for tall buildings. The Portland headquarters for InterMed was built in 2008 and stands 135 feet, about the same height as the lighthouse on Boon Island. Portland’s Back Bay Tower is 172 feet and Franklin Towers is 175 feet.

The proposed height would not have been allowed in the city before November, when the City Council approved an overhaul of Portland’s land use ordinances.

Developers have always been able to build taller downtown, but The Casco was the first building to test the height allowances, said Kevin Kraft, the city’s director of planning and urban development.

Officials hope to see more follow suit.

“As the city grows and we have limited land, trying to grow in a sustainable manner means building vertically,” Kraft said.

The intent behind increasing the building heights, he added, is “getting the most density downtown, where areas are more walkable” and have better access to public transportation.

Despite being one of “several hearts of the downtown,” the square has always been underused, Kraft said.

It’s well-positioned between the Old Port and the Arts District, “but between there, there has always been a gap in that energy. It’s never been a vibrant place,” he said.

According to Kraft, this project is emblematic of what officials hoped to encourage with the ReCode – “to enhance a vibrant 24/7 city” and “using underutilized parcels in a more productive manner.”

‘THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY’

While it’s certainly the most eye-catching part of the project, the tower isn’t what most excites Cary Tyson, executive director of Portland Downtown, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting businesses and activities downtown.

The updates for 55 Union St., where developers have planned a two-story, single-tenant retail building, will take what’s currently an “uninviting corner with an ATM” and turn it into “an active part of our streetscape,” he said.

The building is intended to serve as a “gateway” to Old Port Square as well as a retail anchor for the west side of the district, according to the vision plan.

Tyson said the project will help the downtown by creating jobs and enhancing the cluster of “high-level retail” in the area.

“I’m excited anytime anyone wants to make a major investment in downtown, and that’s what this is,” he said, adding that it “reinforces that this is the heart of the community.”

The project does not include any plans for increased parking, but Soley said in an interview that changing the uses in that area will alter the busy periods to different hours or days and essentially redistribute the use of existing parking spaces.

YEARS IN THE MAKING

Soley’s company has been focused on revitalizing Canal Plaza, an open space girded by large office buildings, since his firm bought it in 2009.

“The scope of what’s contained within Old Port Square has been in the works for 16 years, and I can’t imagine I’ll be done before another 16 years are out,” Soley said.

In 2023, East Brown Cow began a $10 million overhaul of 1 Canal Plaza, a 10-story building.

Soley has in the past proposed other changes to the area. In 2019, he floated the idea of building a 20- to 25-story office tower on a lot behind the plaza.

The plaza was created by the construction of three office structures in the 1970s, including the headquarters of Canal Bank. For much of the previous century, the area had been the site of the Falmouth Hotel, a luxurious six-story building that opened two years after Portland’s Great Fire of 1866. The hotel was demolished in 1963, as Portland underwent a period of so-called urban renewal that included the demolition of historic Union Station.

East Brown Cow is the development company behind a number of Portland properties, including the Hyatt Place hotel in the Old Port, the Fore Street Garage (now the Old Port Square garage) and the Thomas Block on Commercial Street. Last year, the company expanded “The Docent’s Collection,” a suite of loft-style hotel rooms on Middle Street and completed an 11-acre solar farm in Sidney.