Multi-Use Affordable Housing: Bayside Anchor, Portland

Ransom provided lead consultation work and utility design coordination for the Portland Housing Authority’s Bayside Anchor. The 45 unit residential housing project in Portland’s East Bayside Neighborhood includes mixed-use development and houses the Head Start preschool program, the Community Policing office and Portland Housing Authority offices.

Ransom partnered with landscape architect Carroll Associates and Kaplan Thompson Architects providing drainage design, stormwater/environmental permitting and utility design coordination.

The Bayside Anchor project won a national award and grant from Deutsche Bank/Enterprise Community Partners’ national competition Lowering the Cost of Housing. The final project was built for $149 per square foot, achieving the maximum affordability points under the State of Maine scoring system. Bayside Anchor is one of the least expensive multifamily projects the City has seen in years at under $170,000 per unit total development cost.

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.

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