Parkside Studios
Former Sacred Heart School
Sherman and Mellon Streets
Portland, Maine
8 Artist Live/Work Limited Equity Condominiums
Construction Complete

Parkside Studios is being developed in partnership with the City of Portland. Random Orbit's experience developing artist live/work condos and our willingness to explore new ownership models, led us to be selected through a Request For Proposal process to work with the City to redevelop The Sacred Heart School into artist live/work condominiums. The shared goal of the partnership is to develop units under market value that will be affordable to qualified artists with income at 80% of median income for the Portland area, These units will be owned by artists and affordable at this income range in perpetuity. In the past we have tried to make our condos affordable through adaptive reuse of distressed properties, pushing the density and using creative but simple architectural detail. Permanent artist ownership and affordability are goals that as a private developer we could only achieve with a public/private partnership and we are excited about working with the City on this unique project.

The Sacred Heart School is a solid brick building typical of schools built in the 1920's. Each large classroom will be converted into a living unit, which will have a designated studio space in the daylight basement, totaling about 1000 square feet. The building has huge windows and great "old school" details. The rear of the building will be artfully landscaped for a private sculpture garden. There will be on site parking. We expect this building to foster strong community through shared focus and shared benefits of ownership.

Artists will be required to submit to a Qualification Committee for approval click here for criteria. Selections will be made on dedication to creating art not on content. Prospective buyers will also be reviewed by the City of Portland Housing and Community Services Department to determine income eligibility. Deed restrictions will limit the amount of total equity that can be gained on resale of the units and will require sales to another low to medium income qualified artist. We feel that these restrictions are well balanced by the benefits of ownership in a real estate market where prices and availability of residential property and studio spaces are volatile.

Click here for an introduction to ownership at Parkside Studio.

Please contact us for pricing, availability and more information on ownership.