The $22M rebuild of Portland’s historic Boyd Block has won honors. How’d they do it?

By Kelley Bouchard, Portland Press Herald

It took four years and $22 million to restore and rebuild the Boyd Block so it could stand for another 150 years in the heart of the city’s Old Port district.

It was a passion project for Jacob Soley, director of development for East Brown Cow, a family real estate development and management company that owns 31 properties in the Old Port, many with historic designations.

A landmark location at 178 Middle St., the Boyd Block housed the downtown’s first Starbucks from 1998 to 2022. It’s also one of 10 properties that East Brown Cow owns in the city block bounded by Middle, Exchange, Fore and Union streets. The company won planning board approval in December to build a 30-story, mixed-use tower at 45 Union St.

So East Brown Cow has a vested interest in what happens in the district.

“The Old Port as a neighborhood, as a destination, is so compelling,” Soley said. “You can’t recreate that. It’s a unique area and the Boyd Block is a cornerstone of a larger vision for us.”

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