WESTBROOK, Maine — Plans for one of the largest housing development projects in Greater Portland went before city officials in Westbrook Tuesday night.
Construction is underway on nearly 200 units of housing in Westbrook, and the developer has already purchased more land in hopes of building about 300 more.
Rocco Risbara is the president of Risbara Brothers Construction in Scarborough.
He says this is the biggest project for his company and one of the largest for Greater Portland.
In addition to the apartments and homes being built in the “Blue Spruce Farm” development, they want 300 more units off Spring Street, including apartments, homes and condos.
The company presented the project to the planning board Tuesday night, and Risbara hopes to start construction next year.
He says he’s confident this will help ease the housing crunch in and around Portland.
“The demand is there, so we’re having no problem filling the units. The proof is in the pudding and we filled the first 50 filled immediately. The next project is Waterside that we’re building right now. It’s a 48-unit project, of those 48 we have 18 already rented,” Risbara said.
Tuesday’s meeting at Westbrook High School was the first phase of the approval process for this project.