ROCKLAND, Maine — A prominent downtown art gallery wants to build a five-story $3 million building as an expansion of its business.
The Rockland Planning Board is scheduled to hold a pre-application meeting next month for the five-story complex being proposed by Jacob Dowling, owner of the Dowling Walsh Gallery.
Dowling said this has been something he has been considering for the past five years.
The building will be for retail operations on the street level, he said, while the upper floors will consist of high-end storage for collectors. Dowling said what he has determined from his clientele is that there is a need for a business to manage people’s collections, including storage, management, transportation and installation of artwork.
The time is right, he said, particularly with the ongoing construction of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, also on Winter Street.
Dowling’s proposal calls for the new freestanding building to be located off Winter Street in a parking lot owned by the gallery in the rear of its Main Street gallery. The new building would be diagonally across from the under construction Center for Maine Contemporary Art complex.
The building, which is expected to have a footprint of about 90-by-110, is being designed by Eric Allyn and will have several unique features that still are being developed. Gartley and Dorsky Engineers and Surveyors will be submitting the plan to the city board.
The name of the building will be the Starfire Building. Construction is expected to begin in March 2016 and be completed in March 2017.
The tentative date of the planning board meeting is Tuesday, July 7, but may be changed. If changed, it still will be held in July.
This project is the latest development proposal for downtown Rockland. The Center for Maine Contemporary Art building is expected to open in the spring of 2016. That $2.5 million project will result in an 8,600-square-foot art center with a 2,200-square-foot, glass-enclosed courtyard.
The William A. Farnsworth Library and Art Museum is in the midst of a multimillion-dollar renovation project for its downtown Rockland campus and the historic Olson House in Cushing.
Within a few blocks of Winter Street, a five-story $2.9 million hotel that will feature 26 suites is under construction.
In addition, the city’s economic development director said last week a group of investors is expected to unveil in the next few weeks a major downtown redevelopment project to includes retail stores, offices, a potential realignment of streets and possibly a multi-story parking garage along Tillson Avenue.
Near the end of Tillson Avenue, the O’Hara Corporation this spring built a $900,000 nearly 18,000-square-foot building for both working on and storing boats.