| Arts & Cultural Alliance Arts District Creative Economy Summit Report Public Art |
The Arts District and Congress Street revival continues with an emerging restaurant cluster (offering everything from burritos, barbeque and sushi to five star cuisine) and over 100 units of new housing including the introduction of loft-style condominiums to Portland . Young professionals, retirees and others are choosing to move to downtown Portland for the culture, entertainment, energy, and pedestrian orientation it offers. Many of the lofts have been converted from upper floor Class B office space. Within a three-block area on Congress Street four buildings have completed these upper floor residential conversions including refurbished retail storefronts. Yet another positive change has been the renovation of an old rooming house on Oak Street into a modern 60-bed dormitory for the Maine College of Art.
New residential units have been built at the eastern and western edges of the Arts District. At the eastern boundary is, the Chestnut Street Lofts, with 37 residential condominiums and retail space on the street level. A few blocks beyond the western boundary of the Arts District is Walker Terrace, a 40-unit residential apartment house that replaced a vacant gas station.
