PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 14, 2026
The developers of the city’s eastern waterfront — a 10-acre project that’s been in the works for over a decade — plan to build a natural gas-fired cogeneration plant to provide electricity, heat and hot water to the property. The plant wasn’t part of the master plan that the planning board approved for the Portland Foreside Development Co. in 2023, but it was licensed by the state Department of Environmental Protection last summer. On Tuesday, the Maine Public Utilities Commission will begin reviewing whether the plant should be regulated as a public utility. So far, the developers have completed a marina, office building and historic factory storehouse restoration in a project now estimated at over $1 billion. They’re now ramping up the third phase of the project, which includes a hotel, a 132-unit condominium building and a 200-apartment complex. Barbara Vestal, a former planning board chair who lives near the development, called the plant a “major deviation” from city-approved plans. Others have expressed concerns about emissions.