ROCKLAND — The owner of the High Tide restaurant in Rockland has submitted plans to convert the Heritage Office Building into apartments.
Thomas Shanos, through Penobscot Rentals, LLC, submitted the application Nov. 12 with the Rockland code enforcement office for the Heritage project at 30 School St.
Shanos purchased at an auction in October 2020 the restaurant at 275 Main St. that he opened in 2023 as High Tide.
Penobscot Rentals purchased the Heritage building in December 2025 for $800,000.
The proposal calls for creating 14 one-bedroom apartments that will be between 400 and 570 square feet. The name of the development will be School Street Apartments.
The project is scheduled to be completed by October 2029, according to the application.
Shanos said the current commercial tenants in the building have leases and he has given them enough time to find other commercial spaces before the project is underway. He pointed out that there are a lot of vacant commercial spaces in downtown Rockland.
He said the residential project will be done well and be a nice addition to downtown Rockland.
The project has no dedicated parking spaces but the application states that the developer wants to lease spaces from the city.
The Heritage Building was constructed in 1981. Linda Bean owned the building for many years. The Rockland area school district leased space in the building for administrative offices in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s.
The Rockland Planning Board will review the proposal at its Tuesday, Nov. 17 meeting that will start at 5:15 p.m.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.