'We need more housing': New condos coming to Cumberland
CUMBERLAND (WGME) -- Developers are breaking ground on a new condo project in Greater Portland. The latest effort to tackle a lack of inventory is The Mark at Cumberland Foreside.
"There's just a demand for everything let's be honest," says Tom Landry at Benchmark Real Estate, "We need more housing of every type and every price range."
The building is 45 units including 24 two-bedrooms and 21 one-bedrooms. Project team member Greg Shinberg says this offers a prime location, price point and value.
"There's very little on the market in these areas," Shinberg says, "Especially where Maine has such an old housing stock, these are brand new units and they're going to be very efficient."
Those involved are excited to see this move forward, with construction costs starting to come down a bit.
"There's some projects that have been put on hold in the last couple years because of the high construction costs and the complexity of getting a good contractor," Shinberg says, "And I think we have a good team."
Despite interest rate hikes, Landry says buyers are still desperately searching. They've even put a cap on the number of units per buyer in response to interest from investors.
"We've even had people talking about buying an entire floor," says Landry, "We don't want that, we don't want to turn this into an apartment building. We want these to be owner units so we're capping it at five units maximum for any investor."
It's a sign, Landry says, that the building will sell out soon.
"It fills a niche like nothing else has filled in the state of Maine that's been offered to be honest with you," says Landry, "You're close enough but not too close, so you have all these great yins and yangs with this."
The units will start around $449,000. Crews break ground Thursday and the condos will be on the market next week, with a target completion date of March 2024.
