The developer planning the future campus for a graduate school and research center on the edge of Portland’s Back Cove is shrinking the proposed complex by 27 percent.
That comes after residents from a nearby residential neighborhood complained about the potential impact of increased traffic and noise, according to MaineBiz.
The Institute for Digital Engineering and Life Sciences, the nonprofit developing the former site of B&M Baked Beans, is reducing the building density to 468,000 square feet and capping the height of any buildings to 170 feet. Additionally, a planned hotel will be built no higher than eight stories and retail space will be reduced by 60 percent, MaineBiz reported.
The complex will be the future home of the Roux Institute, a planned branch of Boston’s Northeastern University that could attract up to 4,000 graduate students after eight years and employ 300 after five years. The campus will foster research into digital engineering, artificial intelligence and genomics.
It’s named after donors David and Barbara Roux, who invested $100 million in the project in January 2020. The Harold Alfond Foundation pledged another $100 million toward the institute that October.
The Institute for Digital Engineering and Life Sciences bought the location of B&M Baked Beans to make way for the Roux Institute in the summer 2021, ending more than 150 years of bean cooking at Portland’s Back Cove.
The Portland Planning Board will review the scaled-back proposal at a workshop on June 14, MaineBiz reported.
