PORTLAND (WGME) -- A plan to add hundreds of new condos, a hotel and retail space along Portland's Congress Street is moving forward.
The city's planning board giving the project initial approval Tuesday night.
The planning board voted unanimously to approve the project's master plan Tuesday night, and while more plans and approvals are needed, the more than $200 million development is now one step closer to reality.
The project, which has been dubbed Herald Square because it will be built on the site of the former Press Herald printing press building, will sit directly next to city hall.
The master plan approved Tuesday night calls for 300 new condo units, a hotel and retail space across three buildings, one of which will be 14 stories high.
The site stretches between Congress Street and Cumberland Avenue and is expected to be built in phases.
With this latest approval from the planning board, the developers of the project say the first phase could begin as early as this fall, but they say it's still too early to give a firm date on when all phases will be complete.
That could take years.
While the planning board gave the plan unanimous support, there have been critics who've expressed concerns about some of the development's design features.
Those issues are expected to be addressed and worked out as the planning process move forward.