Brunswick Station

Redeveloping an Abandoned Brownfield for Downtown Transit-Oriented Infill

By Randall Arendt

 
The Brunswick Station development in Brunswick, Maine, is a significant mixed-use project aimed at revitalizing the downtown area. Centered around the Brunswick Station train platform that is serviced by the Amtrak Downeaster and located near Bowdoin College, the 5.8-acre development fronting the city’s principal thoroughfare (Maine Street) includes a transportation hub that enhances connectivity within the region. The project features a blend of residential, commercial, and retail spaces, creating a vibrant community atmosphere. Key components include apartments, restaurants, shops, and office spaces, all designed to foster economic growth and provide modern amenities to residents and visitors. This development not only boosts local business but also emphasizes sustainable urban planning, contributing to Brunswick’s ongoing transformation into a dynamic and accessible small city.

Rising from the (Coal) Ashes

After Brunswick’s passenger rail service ceased in 1960, the train station was closed and the entire site fell into disuse for several decades. Although the property is situated in a key commercial location, adjacent to a large supermarket at the southern end of the downtown business district, redevelopment efforts were thwarted for many years because the railyard had become contaminated with coal ash deposited by train operations during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
 

However, recognizing the site’s significant potential for new development, and eager to alleviate the visual blight and to revitalize the property, town officials seized the initiative and proactively acquired the acreage, buying it in 1998, after purchasing an option on it in September 1977, actions that were encouraged by planning director Andrew Singelakis. These bold moves, criticized by some at the time, were almost unprecedented in urban revitalization efforts at the time.

An Essential Partnership

To kickstart the project, the town partnered with Bowdoin College, which agreed to purchase two acres along Union Street to construct the $5 million McLellan Building. For more than a decade this three-story structure housed some of the college’s administrative offices, plus studio art and community meeting spaces. In 2013 the town bought the building and moved in its municipal offices the following year, allowing the town’s former premises along Federal Street to be razed and redeveloped as headquarters for Coastal Enterprises, a national community development finance institution. Brunswick essentially swapped the Longfellow Elementary School (built in 1924) with the college as part of its deal to occupy the McLellan Building. Bowdoin then spent $6.5 million to renovate the school, which is adjacent to its campus, as a dance and art center.

The parking lot on the eastern end of the project, serving the office building occupied by the town and by Bowdoin College, was landscaped to a commendably high standard, with ten trees planted in the middle parking bay containing 34 spaces (roughly 27 feet apart), in addition to trees planted at similar intervals along the street edge.

Creating the Master Plan

Town officials expanded the scope of the original Maine Street Station (now Brunswick Station) redevelopment effort in 2004 when it appointed the Maine Street Station Steering Committee to create an ambitious master plan for an additional 17 acres of adjoining land, including parcels owned by the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) and a feed and farm store, extending another block westward past Union Street to Spring Street. By 2024, however, no further changes had occurred on most of the additional acreage, where more than 20 new residential, retail, office, and mixed-use buildings have been envisioned.

In 2004 the town also initiated a process that secured cleanup funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and economic development funds from both the U.S. Economic Development Administration and the Maine state government.

Three years later, in 2007, Brunswick selected JHR Development to jointly develop a $20 million project on what remained of the original 5.8-acre Brunswick Station site. The property is located within easy walking distance of downtown restaurants and shops, Bowdoin College, and the Maine State Music Theatre, as well as the rail platform. The town was responsible for site cleanup, infrastructure improvements, and establishing tax-increment financing for the project. As developer, JHR was responsible for creating a mixed-use plan in keeping with the town’s master plan. The project is being built out over three phases.

Designing Brunswick Station

The physical plan arranged buildings along the parcel’s periphery to create strong edges and to internalize and visually subordinate most of the surface parking. (There are no enclosed garage spaces.) Although several parking lots are visible from Noble Street and the new Station Avenue, they are all well-screened with landscaping. Except for the two smallest buildings, all of the new structures are at least two stories in height, increasing land-use efficiency and contributing positively to the downtown townscape, unlike many projects built in prior decades, where front parking was allowed to dominate development parcels having only single-story structures.

Phases One and Two: Mixed Uses with a Focus on Services, Hospitality, and Residences

Phase One of Brunswick Station encompasses approximately 40,000 square feet of mixed-use space, including retail, restaurants, and medical offices. Bowdoin was originally a major tenant, placing its bookstore in one of the three buildings. It also occupied the second floor of another building for offices, but those spaces have since been let to commercial tenants.

Current tenants include Miracle Ear, Blake Orchard Juicery, Scarlet Begonias Restaurant, Byrnes Irish Pub and Restaurant, Midcoast Federal Credit Union, and the Brunswick Visitor Center. It also includes a large medical office building occupied by Mid-Coast Primary Care and Walk-in Clinic and the OA Centers for Orthopedics. These buildings maintain a traditional relationship with the street, as per the town’s design standards (which essentially produce the same results as do “form-based codes,” but without the complexity often associated with those codes).

Phase Two included development of the Brunswick Hotel, a 52-room, luxury hotel with a full-service restaurant (Noble Kitchen and Bar) and function space for 150 people, which opened in 2011. It was built in a classic traditional style consistent with the town’s architectural heritage, and is located on the corner of Maine and Noble Streets. In 2017 JHR built the Brunswick Station Apartments, containing 24 residential units on a lot facing both Noble Street and Station Avenue, though without covered parking, which is unusual in this snowy climate. One final parcel, facing Union Street, remains to be built, and is proposed to contain retail and offices.

Phase Three: “Only a Matter of Time”

The town intends to extend this project westward, across Union Street, in a final phase where it is likely to include affordable housing, among other uses. This final phase has been stalled due to difficulties in land assemblage and acquisition, but it is generally felt to be only a matter of time before those challenges can be surmounted.

Restoring Railway Service to Brunswick

After a multimillion-dollar project to upgrade tracks and bridges between Portland and Brunswick, Amtrak’s Downeaster passenger rail service began in November 2012 with two trains per day (rising to five per day in 2024). The commuter line links Brunswick with Portland, approximately 25 miles south, and Boston, approximately 130 miles south, restoring service that had ended in 1960. $35 million in federal funds covered the cost of laying welded rails and improving grade crossings between Portland and Brunswick.

Because ticket revenues initially covered only 60 percent of operating costs, a continuing subsidy of about $15 per passenger was needed, with 80 percent of that amount being covered by the federal government. (Although this revenue shortfall is disappointing, it is slightly lower than that achieved on routes in highly urbanized areas, such as Metro North and the Long Island Railroad.) However, with monthly ridership recovering from pandemic levels and setting new records during the summer of 2023, MDOT authorized a two-year pilot study to evaluate the potential for extending regular passenger service 56 miles northward from Brunswick to Rockland, Maine. In addition, in late 2023 the Biden Administration announced that the Downeaster line will receive $28 million for improving the mainline tracks from Brunswick to the Massachusetts state line to reduce delays and shorten transit times.

A Testament to the Power of Planning and Community Action

The Brunswick Station development stands as a testament to the power of visionary urban planning and resilient community action. Rising from the ashes of its industrial past, the project has successfully transformed a once-contaminated railyard into a mixed-use hub that serves as a model for urban renewal. The collaboration between the Town of Brunswick and Bowdoin College, along with strategic investments in infrastructure and environmental cleanup, has yielded a vibrant community space not yet fully realized but that nonetheless not only supports local businesses but also enhances the quality of life for residents and visitors alike.

The phased development approach, designed to integrate with the town’s historic architecture and streetscape, has already delivered a rich mix of residential, commercial, medical, and hospitality spaces. Key projects, such as the McLellan Building, the Brunswick Hotel & Tavern, and the Brunswick Station Apartments, exemplify a commitment to architectural heritage and urban efficiency. The return of passenger rail service through Amtrak’s Downeaster line has reestablished Brunswick as a vital transportation link, further cementing the project’s role in regional connectivity.

Despite the challenges of land acquisition and the ongoing need for public subsidies to support rail operations, the development’s success highlights the importance of forward-thinking municipal leadership and the benefits of public-private partnerships. The planned extension of the project promises to bring even more inclusive growth, with a focus on affordable housing and additional mixed-use spaces.

In conclusion, the Brunswick Station development not only revitalizes a critical downtown area but also serves as an enduring example of how communities can repurpose historical sites to foster economic development, sustainability, and enhanced urban living. This project demonstrates that with determination and collaboration even significant redevelopment challenges can be overcome.

Randall Arendt is a landscape planner, site designer, author, lecturer, and an advocate of “conservation planning” and conservation subdivision design. He is the founding president of Greener Prospects and serves as senior conservation advisor at the Natural Lands Trust in Media, Pennsylvania. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute in London, and in 2004 he was elected as an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Among his seven books are Rural by Design: Planning for Town and Country (2nd ed./s., 2015). A full bio and many articles can be downloaded at no cost at www.greenerprospects.com.

Read other Unsprawl case studies by Randall Arendt: Milwaukee Avenue Historic District in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Village Place concept in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Header photo of the Brunswick Station train station and commercial building by Dirk Ingo Franke – Own work, CC BY 3.0.