Developers outline Rock Row Phase 3: 276 apartments, seven‑story garage and a transit hub

Developers and their design team presented the Rock Row South Campus Phase 3 site plan to the Westbrook Planning Board on May 19, outlining two new buildings — a six‑story residential structure and a seven‑story parking garage with ground‑floor retail — planned for Lot 8 of the Rock Row campus.

Ian McKim of Jones and Beach Engineers, the applicant’s civil lead, told the board the site will include a dedicated pedestrian connection into Phase 1 and that private road approvals must be in place before mobilizing construction. “So we are providing a pedestrian connection to phase 1,” McKim said, stressing the design’s intention to activate streets and link across phases. He added the project will require an amended TMP permit and a DEP stormwater major amendment as part of the Phase 3 master plan filing.

Architect Tim Reagan said the residential parcel wraps a landscaped internal courtyard and currently contains about 276 units of primarily studio, one‑ and two‑bedroom apartments, with a carved‑out roof deck facing the quarry. “We have a mix of studios, ones and twos,” Reagan said, and showed massing and facade moves intended to break down the building’s 330‑by‑220‑foot scale.

The seven‑story parking garage is intended to provide the majority of Phase 3 parking and to host a small transit hub, the team said. “The parking garage will have about 700 cars,” Amanda, the project’s landscape/hardscape speaker, told the board, and the design includes an interior waiting space, bike storage and room for ticketing or vending to support bus stops on Rockwell Boulevard. Nicholas Ferry of Waterstone Properties Group said the team is coordinating with Metro to integrate the Husky rapid transit line as a stop and wants the garage to support multimodal access.

Board members pressed developers on several operational points. John Turcotte asked whether garage parking would primarily serve residents or be open to the public; the team said the garage is planned to serve residential and retail users as well as some off‑site demand and that access will be controlled either with gates or other operational measures. The applicant also said an on‑site operations team would manage the garage and that systems (stickers, gates, parking controls) remain under consideration.

Design and neighborhood implications drew board comment. Members praised facade treatments and urged measures to enliven the concrete garage — including murals — and asked the applicant to prioritize local retail tenants alongside national brands. Ferry said leasing strategy will seek a mix of local and national tenants and that some retail footprints are deliberately sized to accommodate smaller, local businesses.

The applicant described ongoing site‑level technical work: roadways will be private and must be approved before site mobilization; Sebago Technics is updating the TMP for Phase 3; and the team has held a DEP pre‑application meeting ahead of a stormwater master plan filing expected in July. McKim also discussed groundwater and the former quarry on the site, estimating the quarry water level has risen roughly 150 feet since a 2014 survey and still needs “about another 30 to 40” feet before pumping would become necessary; the team said any pump work would be permitted through DEP.

The public hearing drew no public speakers. Staff thanked the team for coordination across parcels and noted that subsequent, independent site plans for other Phase 3 lots will need coordination for utilities and access as they move through separate reviews. The board did not take formal action on the project at the May 19 meeting; the team said it would return in June with the next parcel in the review sequence.

What's next: the applicant plans to continue technical reviews with DEP, MDOT (as applicable) and city staff, to refine operations and parking controls, and to return for subsequent site‑plan hearings as parcels are staggered through the Phase 3 build‑out.