By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

The building that once housed The Snow Squall restaurant in South
Portland’s Knightville neighborhood could be home to a future dining
establishment as well as a marine retail center, the building’s new
owner said.

“Our anchor tenant will be a restaurant,” said South Port Marine
co-owner Kip Reynolds on Monday. “I’m not sure what type of restaurant,
but we’ve got a number of interested parties.”

    Sales manager Chris Cutshall said South Port, which
owns the abutting marina at the end of Ocean Street, acquired the
building’s first floor and is currently in talks with prospective
tenants to fill the roughly 8,400 square foot space. With the working
title, “South Port Marine Center,” Cutshall said the company is
pursuing marine retailers to occupy existing business condominium space
on the first floor.

    “We’d like to see the types of things that a boater
will use like a canvas maker, a marine electronics store or a tackle
shop rather than bringing in a hardware store or a printer – something
that doesn’t have anything to do with the waterfront,” Cutshall said.
“I think the locals recognize that one of the things they have working
for them is the proximity to the water. Knightville was named after a
shipbuilder. We’re helping the area connect back to its roots.”

    Andrew Ingalls, whose firm Ingalls Commercial
Brokerage facilitated the sale, said the building’s first floor has
been vacant for roughly three years. Boston-based Harbor Place Trust,
LLC owned the first floor for more than 20 years, Ingalls said. The
building’s upper floor houses Harbor Place Condominiums, 12 residential
condominium units.

    “[South Port has] already gone through and cleaned
up the kitchen area,” Ingalls said on Monday, adding they plan to
retrofit the first floor. “Once The Snow Squall closed that kind of
changed the dynamic of the building.”

South Portland Code Enforcement Officer Patricia Doucette said The Snow Squall closed in 2005.

Knightville Neighborhood Association Co-Chairman Rommy Brown said she
hopes South Port Marine will consider the residents living upstairs as
they move forward in their plans.

    “We need to make sure we get along and help each
other out,” Brown said. “So I’m hoping they will cooperate with the
residents that live upstairs in terms of fostering a good business
climate, but also maintaining the quality of life for residents.”

Brown also said she welcomes more retail in the area and is hopeful South Port Marine will find a restaurant tenant.

    “As a resident, we missed having another dining
place,” she said. “Of course also as a resident and as co-chair[man] of
the neighborhood association and interested in downtown revitalization,
we looked forward to that place being filled because it was a big,
empty hole in that end. We’re very much in favor of continuing the
mixed-use character of Knightville and [South Port has] been down there
for some time so I think that’s going to be an interesting development
to watch.”