Hotel opening in Portland's East End, as office building nears completion next door
Oct. 3—A new, $27.5 million hotel is preparing to open Thursday in Portland's East End as a massive, three-year construction project there nears completion.
The Cambria Hotel, at 25 Hancock St., has already sold out its 102 guest rooms for the night of Oct. 6, according to the hotel's website. Rooms next week are going for over $300 a night.
The entrance now displays the Cambria name and a sign for the onsite restaurant, ALTO Terrace Bar + Kitchen.
Around the corner, one side of a nearly completed 170,000-square-foot office building now displays the logo of Covetrus Inc. The Portland animal-health company will soon move its headquarters to five of the seven floors, and already has a veterinary pharmacy running on the site.
Covetrus and Cambria will fill out a block that's also home to Shipyard Brewing Co. and another hotel, a Residence Inn by Marriott. In 2018, Shipyard moved most of its brewing operations to Read Street in Portland to make room for the new structures. Allied-Cook Construction, of Scarborough, broke ground on them in September 2019.
The developer, Portland-based Bateman Partners, initially estimated the work would be completed in 2020, with the hotel ready for guests in 2021.
Bateman didn't immediately respond to calls from the Press Herald about the hotel opening or its delay, but countless construction projects have slowed in recent years due to the pandemic, supply chain problems and an ongoing labor shortage. Amid the disruption, new hotels have increasingly chosen to debut with "soft," low-profile openings.
Cambria, a chain of more than 60 upscale U.S. hotels and part of Choice Hotels International, is planning a grand opening at its first Maine property sometime in early November. Cambria opened its first New England branch in Boston this summer, and is working on two others in Connecticut.
Meanwhile, Covetrus has been keeping relatively quiet about its upcoming move to 12 Mountfort St. The company currently has its headquarters a half mile away, at 7 Custom House St.
A spokesperson for Covetrus said it is making arrangements to relocate but didn't specify a timeframe. Unlike three years ago, plans now call for Covetrus to share some of the new space.
Woodward and Curran, a Portland engineering firm, will lease the top two floors of the building — about 56,000 square feet — and has said it will move in the spring from its current location on outer Congress Street. A company Facebook post shows a rendering of 12 Mountfort St. with a Woodard and Curran sign at the top.
Woodard and Curran has over 1,200 employees and operates 27 offices across the U.S.
Covetrus, formed in February 2019 from a merger of Vets First Choice and a division of New York-based Henry Schein Inc., has 5,500 employees worldwide, including about 300 in Portland. The company has said it plans to add more, although it's not clear if those plans will be affected by a planned buyout.
Covetrus is in the midst of a transformation beyond a new address — the company is being purchased and taken private by a pair of private equity firms. Shareholders will meet Oct. 11 to vote on the $4 billion deal.
The company and the buyers have both said that headquarters will remain in Portland if the sale is completed.
