BAYSIDE ANCHOR

About the Project

In 2015 Portland Housing Authority (PHA) completed its Strategic Vision Plan for all of its 1,000 units of public housing. PHA has various sites in Portland with under-utilized land and parking lots, and Bayside Anchor was just such a parking lot. Bayside Anchor created a unique partnership between Avesta Housing and the Portland Housing Authority that saw this project as a catalyst for future re-development and re-imagining of hundreds of units of public housing in East Bayside.

This project was launched as a winner in a 2013 national competition by Enterprise and Deutche Bank called “Lowering the Cost of Housing.” It was built for the very low cost of $149 per square foot, achieving the maximum affordability points under the State of Maine scoring system.

Bayside Anchor is a service hub for low-income residents in East Bayside, giving the project its name as a stabilizing “anchor” for the community. The Portland Housing Authority’s local property management offices were relocated into the first floor of Bayside Anchor, along with a Headstart pre-school and the East Bayside Community Policing Office.

Bayside Anchor was built to Passive House standards and received PHIUS+ certification. Combining the very low cost target with the ambitious goal of Passive House certification drove the development team to a construction management process and an extremely deep dive into construction details and value engineering.