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Amtrak engineer B.J. White climbs into the cab of a Downeaster train in Portland on Saturday. A company that owns land on Thompson’s Point says having a train maintenance structure on the site could discourage other development.

enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Dave Wessel, a mechanic with Amtrak, inspects brakes on the Downeaster train in Portland between runs on Saturday. Currently, service work on the train is done outside, where workers and the passenger trains are exposed to the elements.

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PORTLAND — The agency that runs Amtrak's Downeaster train plans to erect a tent-like structure near the Portland Transportation Center this year to shelter the passenger trains while crews work on them.

The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority is considering using its power of eminent domain to seize the land needed for the project because the landowner opposes it.

The fabric structure – known as a "rubb building" – essentially would be a steel skeleton covered by a rubbery fabric. Rubb buildings are commonly used as warehouses or temporary airplane hangars. There's a rubb building at the Merrill Marine Terminal on the city's waterfront.

The building planned for Thompson's Point would be 200 feet to 400 feet long and wide enough to cover two train tracks, said Patricia Quinn, the rail authority's executive director.

She said the heated structure would protect crews from bad weather and thaw the snow and ice that often accumulate on trains and cause havoc to their electrical and mechanical systems.

Crews sometimes use sledgehammers to knock off the ice, she said.

"It's not grand and fancy," she said of the structure. "But we need to be able to thaw these trains out."

To build it, however, the rail authority would have to acquire land owned by Thompson's Point Inc., which owns most of the peninsula that juts into the Fore River and is visible from Interstate 295.

The corporation opposes the project, citing concerns that its industrial nature would preclude its own efforts to develop the area into a mixed-use waterfront neighborhood.

The rail authority has begun talking with the state Department of Transportation about how to acquire the property through eminent domain.

"Eminent domain" is the legal term that describes the power that the state has to seize property for a public use. The owner is entitled to compensation based on fair market value. Maine law has delegated eminent domain power to the rail authority, a quasi-state agency.

Tony Donovan, the real estate broker who represents Thompson's Point Inc., said the rail authority's plans would make it much harder to market the company's 30-acre property for an ambitious, upscale development.

The site's proximity to public transportation would allow a developer to build a "little city" because many people would use public transportation rather than motor vehicles, he said. He said Thompson's Point could support a $130 million development project that would serve as a gateway to the city.

While there is a lot of attention now focused on creating a transparent, public process for redeveloping the Maine State Pier on Portland's waterfront, he said, there is no effort to involve the public in the redevelopment of Thompson's Point.

The rail authority's decision to locate its maintenance operation on the point may serve Amtrak's interests, he said, "but is that what is best for the city?"

Thompson's Point first emerged as a business center in the 1820s when the Cumberland and Oxford Canal was built. The point was a hub of activity when canal boats and barges turned around in the adjacent basin.

Today, the point is occupied by nearly two dozen small businesses, including companies involved with carpentry, electrical services, building restoration, waste disposal, metal fabrication and distribution.

Thompson's Point Inc. is owned by the heirs of Peter Van Wyck, who died last week.

City Councilor David Marshall said city officials are not aware of the rail authority's plans. He learned about it only after Donovan called him last week, and he hasn't heard any talk in City Hall about it.

He said the combination of "spectacular" water views and access to I-295 and public transportation gives the site great potential for a transit-oriented development. But he's worried that the rail authority is making far-reaching development decisions...