Month: January 2015

There are 20+ restaurants and other food-related businesses currently under development in Portland and new ventures are being announced all the time. The demand for vacant restaurants and retail space remains quite high. So, once again, I’ve put together this list of retail spaces to help out anyone who’s searching for real estate to get their new venture off the ground.

If there are any good spots I’ve overlooked give a shout out in the comments or email me at anestes@portlandfoodmap.com and I’ll add them to the list.

Old Port

• 245 Commercial St—this space was the home of The Salt Exchange for the past 5 years.
• 13 Exchange St—until very recently 13 Exchange Street was occupied by the Old Port House of Jerky.
• 34 Exchange St—until late last year this was the location of JL Coombs.
• 57 Exchange St—Country Noel is located in the basement space on the corner of Exchange and Middle. They’re closing at the end of January.
• 90 Exchange St—this restaurant space had been occupied by Thai 9, before that it has been a succession of establishments: Little Seoul, Greek Corner, Bandol and Rachel’s.
• 363 Fore St—over the last couple years this space was a Dunkin Donuts and then an Orange Leaf franchise. It would be nice to see this store front on the corner of Fore and Market occupied by a local business rather than yet another national chain.
• 367 Fore St—on Fore Street near Bull Feeney’s.
• 420 Fore St—this is the former home of Joe’s NY Pizza which went out of business after a fire broke out in the building a couple years ago.
• 455 Fore St—right on the corner of Fore and Union Streets, this space used to house Gingko Blue.
• 465 Fore St—for a few month last year this was a vegan juice bar called Liquid M2; it’s adjacent to Dean’s Sweets and across the street from Miyake.
• 24 Free St—across from Sur Lie, this was the original home of Sapporo in 1985.
• 50 Middle St—there are plans are to develop the remainder of the lot that used to be the home of the Jordan Meat plant which will include 12,500 square feet of retail space. Hugo’s, Eventide, Duckfat, Eat Ender and Miccuci’s are all right in the immediate vicinity.
• 151 Middle St—this listing on Loopnet indicates that both the Bull Moose and Videoport spaces are both for lease.
• 15 Monument Square—This was the location of the Portland branch of Wannawaf for a season, prior to that it had been the home of Cobblestones.
• 11 Temple St—this is the former Minot’s Flower Shop on the corner of Temple and Federal Streets.
• Widgery  Wharf—a new construction project on Commercial Street that includes a 5,175 sq ft restaurant space.

Art District

• 604 Congress St—this space was formerly a thrift store. It’s currently under construction along with the rest of the Schwatz Building. It’s immediately adjacent to the Down Town Lounge and across from the State Theater.
• 660 Congress St—the Queen Anne style building was the first space Roxanne Quimby originally bought to house her artist colony. The last business to operate there was Zinnia’s Antiques. A developer is now renovating the building; a retail space is planned for the first floor.
• First floor of the Schwartz Building—the building at the intersection of High and Congress is still under construction. Once it’s finished the corner space on the first floor could be a really sweet street cafe.

West End

• 769 Congress St—for a few years 769 served as headquarters for The Quimby Colony. 1935-2009 it was the home of the Roma restaurant. As part of the renovations to the Roma it now has a very nice commercial kitchen.
• 870 Congress St—there a first floor space for lease located in the Maine Medical Center parking garage almost across the street from La Bodega Latina.
• 79 Mellen St—the Mellen Street Market building is for sale.
• 72 Pine St—a small street level commercial condo in Andrews Square is for sale.
• 260 Saint John St—the former Jan Mae restaurant in the Saint John strip mall is available.
• 237 Spring St—this store is located at the corner of Spring and Clark Street is for lease. It used to be the Spring Street Variety store.

Bayside

• Amergian Bros on Pearl St—the sign for this neighborhood market is one of the last vestiges of a large Armenian community that thrived here during the early 20th century. Perhaps it’s time to see this historic location once again serve as a neighborhood market.
• 337 Cumberland Ave—the building that Maria’s Ristorante is located in is for sale. According to the listing the restaurant will relocate.
• 45 Marginal Way—the old Century Tire property is being turned into the Century Plaza strip mall. Two national franchises have already signed on, two spaces remain.
• Midtown—the new plans for Midtown include 87,0000 sq ft of retail space located on the first floor of the buildings.

East End/Washington Ave/India St

• Bay House—this new set of building near India Street has several ground floor retail spaces available.
• 229 Congress St—the space to the right of Ramen Suzukiya currently occupied by Goody G’s
• 249 Congress St—Lee Farrington did an excellent job of converting this former hair salon into a restaurant. It’s unfortunate that Figa closed but it would be even sadder to see this space go unused.
• 58 Washington Ave—this space was the former home of Falmouth Flower & Gifts.

Other

• 34 Vannah St—this space has housed a number of neighborhood markets over the past few years. It garnered some attention in 2014 when Hugo’s/Eventide briefly considered leasing it.
• 1207 Forest Ave—for several decades this had been the home of the Wok Inn.
• 1706 Forest Ave—for many this was a neighborhood variety store called Papa’s Place. I’ve heard that since then it’s been renovated and there’s a new commercial kitchen on the premise.
• 906 Brighton Ave—this space was formerly occupied by La Familia restaurant.
• 1363 Washington Ave—this space is currently occupied by Sala Thai.
• Pine Tree Shopping Mall—several different store fronts in the mall are available for lease including, presumably, the Full Belly Deli space.
• 305 Rte 1, Yarmouth—this building was recently Oscar’s New American and before that was home to the Sea Grass.

Some of the best spots out there aren’t officially on the market. If there’s a space you’re interested in, it never hurts to talk with the current occupant and see if you can work out a deal that they’re happy with. They move to another address and you get the perfect location for your  business.

Give a shout out in the comments or email me at anestes@portlandfoodmap.com if there are any additional properties I’ve overlooked and I’ll add them to the list.