The Right Equation for Responsible Development: Spotlight on The Malone Family Tower (Portland)

Each year, the Maine Real Estate & Development Association (MEREDA) recognizes some of the state’s most “noteworthy and significant” real estate projects, completed in the previous year. The exemplary projects from across the state, completed in 2024, not only embody MEREDA’s belief in responsible real estate development, but also exemplify best practices in the industry, contributing to Maine’s economic growth by significant investment of resources and job creation statewide.

This year, MEREDA honored projects from throughout the state, with each receiving special recognition at MEREDA’s 2025 “Notable Night” social celebration in May.

In a multi-part series exclusive to the Maine Real Estate Insider, we’ll provide an up-close look at the most notable commercial development projects of the past year that are helping to fuel Maine’s economy in terms of investment and job creation. MEREDA is proud to recognize responsible development based upon criteria including environmental sustainability, economic impact, energy efficiency, difficulty of the development, uniqueness, social impact and job creation.

Mainebiz also featured each of our Notable Project Recipients in their inaugural “Groundbreaking Maine” publication.  Be sure to check it out!  https://www.mainebiz.biz/special-edition/groundbreaking-maine-2025

MEREDA’s 2024 Top 9 recipients include:

Firehouse Village, Firehouse Ventures & Avesta Housing (Scarborough)

99 Western Apartments, Mastway Development (Augusta)

The Malone Family Tower, MaineHealth and Perkins&Will (Portland)

Seaport Community Health Center, Penobscot Community Health Center (Belfast)

Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument: Tekαkαpimək Contact Station, Elliotsville Foundation (T3 R7 WELS)

Vertical Harvest, Vertical Harvest Maine (Westbrook)

Stacy M. Symbol Apartments, Westbrook Development Corporation (Westbrook)

Nightingale & State Street Campus Redevelopment, NewHeight Group & Redfern Properties (Portland)

Front Street Redevelopment, Portland Housing Authority (Portland)

Please join us this week in celebrating The Malone Family Tower.

MEREDA:  Describe the building and project.

MaineHealth and Perkins&Will: The Malone Family Tower is an 8-story addition to Maine Medical Center’s historic campus in Portland, Maine. The new tower, designed by Perkins&Will, is the culmination of a decade-long partnership between the architecture firm and MaineHealth Maine Medical Center to enhance patient access to hospital-based care, create more private rooms, and facilitate better patient outcomes. Serving as a welcoming gateway to the campus along Congress Street, a major artery in Portland, Maine Medical Center is the primary hospital serving the State of Maine and the building draws inspiration from its sense of place.

Built on the site of a former parking garage, the Malone Family Tower re-establishes a lost connection with the city. The tower enables a beautiful and navigable transition from the urban street up to the historic campus on the hill. The transparency of the building facade along Congress Street activates a previously dark streetscape and illuminates the hospital’s mission to welcome and heal the community.

MEREDA:  What was the impetus for this project? 

MaineHealth and Perkins&Will: Approaching 150 years in service and faced with an aging campus, hospital leadership wanted to remain at the location of their founding but needed to address urgent infrastructure and community needs such as inefficient space allocation, population growth, and a shortage of surgical beds. The tower creates 19 procedure rooms, 40 pre- and post-surgical bays, and 96 universal patient rooms that can be transitioned from ICU to Medical/Surgical beds to allow for the hospital to adapt as patient volumes and acuities require over time. This project transcends a single building, representing the hospital’s evolution as it balances the demands of modern healthcare for a community, while serving as an anchor to the city and investing in the State’s sustainable future.

MEREDA:  That sounds like quite a process. How long were you in the planning stages before construction started?

MaineHealth and Perkins&Will: The tower is the culmination of a decade-long development initiative to increase access to hospital-based care, create more private rooms, and facilitate better patient outcomes. Initial planning stages started in 2015 with a detailed analysis of Maine Medical Center’s existing facilities and identification of growth and renewal opportunities, which resulted in a comprehensive implementation plan for several major enabling, renovation and addition projects. As the largest ground-up construction of this planning and development initiative, the Malone Family Tower opened in its doors to patients in June of 2024, creating a new gateway to the hospital campus.

MEREDA:  Tell us about the most challenging aspect of getting this project completed.

MaineHealth and Perkins&Will: Healthcare delivery evolves rapidly, often outpacing built environments. To address this, the project’s clinical spaces prioritize flexibility and universality. Patient rooms are sized and configured to accommodate a range of patient acuities. Critical Care (ICU) functions dictated larger rooms for clinical access. Required support functions including bathrooms and visitor space within each room allow for less intensive clinical uses ensuring patients heal. In this thoughtful planning, rooms can be converted to meet patient acuity without the need to build new or renovate existing spaces as needs change.

Budget, site limitations, and construction challenges also shaped the project. The tight location between two city streets and a large retaining wall, dictated the available footprint per floor to meet desired program. The earth retention system required to shore the hill and allow the construction of the building was a complex engineering challenge. However, this work was vital to allow the hospital to be located where it was and connect the existing campus with Congress Street.

MEREDA:  Something unexpected you learned along the way was….

MaineHealth and Perkins&Will: During design, it became clear that the Malone Family Tower could also become a catalyst for increasing overall campus performance and improve energy efficiency across the campus’ aging buildings. Strategic relocation of the new Sterile Processing Department within the tower optimized campus energy use by repurposing it to a more efficient site. The project increased campus-wide chilled water demand, which enabled year-round operation of the Central Utility Plant and centralized cooling, leading to a 15% energy savings overall. Balancing energy performance with the greater good of the campus, the tower ultimately achieves a Site Energy-Use Intensity (EUI) of 224 kbtu/sf/yr, which is below the national EUI average.

MEREDA:  Now that it’s complete, what feature of the project do you think makes it the most notable?

MaineHealth and Perkins&Will: The building’s massing is expressive of the program organization and the rifting forms are reminiscent of Maine’s shifting geology. The rugged stone, woods, and water of the Maine coastline inspired design, form, and material choices. A striking, jaggedly faceted façade opens into a soaring seven-story atrium that visually connects the public concourse to clinical spaces and lounges for visitors and staff. The building pulls daylight and green space from up the hill down through the atrium to re-establish the urban edge. A green roof and urban plazas feature native flora interspersed with benches and rocky outcroppings, reminiscent of the local ecology. Strategically placed openings in the exterior cladding reveal city views and the nearby Fore River; internally, open views into patient rooms from hallways facilitate care and connection.