A contractor who’s suffered lengthy zoning delays on a $15 million Portland-area project is now wondering whether it’ll ever get off the ground.
The Cape Elizabeth council will vote Feb. 10 whether to allow zoning amendments paving the way for Center Court, a 33-unit, senior-housing development.
Bob Gaudreau of Hardypond Construction said he may never recoup the investment he’s made in the protracted project, even if it goes forward.
“This will be my last development,” he said. “Just getting too old to take this type of risk anymore.”
The zoning amendments up for a vote next week would allow greater density in the middle of town.
Gaudreau calls it “the best opportunity to provide additional housing units and help businesses in the Town Center District.”
“I am just a conduit in the end, maybe for the good of Cape Elizabeth or maybe money down the tube,” Gaudreau added. “My frustration is that my development should have been let loose to proceed to the Planning Board, instead of being caught up in a revaluation of the whole land-use code for the Town Center district.”
He started Hardypond 35 years ago – a week after getting laid off from his construction job.
Gaudreau’s boss is now his daughter – company president Deirdre Wadsworth, making it one of a handful of female-owned construction companies in Maine.
