A Developer Wants to Build a Restaurant in Fort Gorges

A developer wants to build a restaurant in Fort Gorges along with shops and maybe even a bed-and-breakfast place.

According to the Portland Press Herald, Mike Dugay, a developer, has been chatting with Portland officials about putting restaurants and shops in historic Fort Gorges.

That's despite some pretty strong opposition from the nonprofit group Friends of Fort Gorges. Their sole mission is to keep the fort preserved.

But Dugay says that's exactly what he wants, too, the newspaper reports. He says that after going to a fundraiser for Friends of Fort Gorges, he thought that if you want to save it, you have to open it up.

He said in the article:

We would stabilize it, save it, and have some value added to it. There are lots of old buildings in Portland that have been saved by adding new uses.

 

But Friends of Fort Gorges did not like the plans one bit. They aren't opposed to the idea of some sort of public-private partnership, but the goal has to be to preserve the fort first, then public access, according to the Portland Press Herald.

There is a public forum coming up on Sept. 4th. If everyone there says yes to commercializing Fort Gorges, Friends of Fort Gorges says they will have to seriously re-evaluate their mission.