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South Portland will team up with a private developer to transform the old Mahoney Middle School. 

The City Council voted unanimously to move forward with a partnership with Developers Collaborative, a Portland-based firm, per the Mahoney City Center Committee’s unanimous recommendation. The developer will work for the city for free for six months while figuring out the feasibility of the project, creating a plan, collecting more community input and crafting a legal agreement.

The city decided to pursue a partnership with a private developer to shrink the price tag, which many residents and council members viewed as too steep. A private developer would be able to benefit from federal and state historic tax credit programs, which could cover about a third of the total project cost. 

When the original conceptual design for the civic hub came in with a price tag of $193.8 million in December — $120 million more than preliminary estimates — councilors said they couldn’t imagine residents voting for something that expensive. The plans were scaled back, with a renovation option estimated to cost $70 million to $76 million and leave 25% to 35% of the building unoccupied. 

But councilors were discouraged, believing that the proposal had lost sight of the original goal of creating a community hub. They postponed the referendum vote, and the Mahoney committee went back to the drawing board. 

Since July, the committee has evaluated proposals from three developers, prioritizing the teams’ experience with adaptive reuse and historical preservation and collaborating with municipalities. Developers Collaborative’s proposal scored the highest. 

The firm has completed more than 20 redevelopment projects in the state that involved historic tax credits, including schools, churches, municipal buildings, mills and other properties, including the Rumery Lofts in Portland, an auto dealership converted into a mixed-use residential building, and Johnson Hall, a theater in Gardiner.

Developers Collaborative has redeveloped more than 12 former schools, so they have familiarity with floor plans, corridor widths and other structural elements of those buildings.  

The firm also has experience designing community-centered spaces. They converted the former Motherhouse convent and created the Stevens Square Campus in Portland, transforming the space into nearly 200 homes, a community pool, gymnasium and a new home for Portland’s Good Theater. The project, which cost slightly more than $100 million, involved multiple historic tax credits and phases. 

Kevin Bunker, a founder of the firm, said he’s been excited about the potential of the Mahoney building for decades, saying he used to drive by it with his mentor, Richard Berman, who would point it out and say, “Someday that’s going to be a project of yours.” 

He said he is excited to find ways to incorporate uses for residents of all ages. 

“No one’s going to be excited about ‘here’s a great, shiny new place to come and pay your taxes,’” Bunker said. “But people will get excited if they can check out a book there or use the open space and maybe see a show at a community theater or get a bite to eat.”