Now We Know Why All Those Trees on Forest Avenue in Portland, Maine Were Cleared

Last month, in what seemed like a matter of a day or two, an area of about one and a half acres on outer Forest Avenue, across from Tortilla Flat in Portland, was cleared of trees. This area butts up again Riverton Park, a low-rent public housing community operated by the Portland Housing Authority.

My first thought when I saw this area being cleared was that maybe they were putting in some more affordable housing to expand Riverton Park. Affordable housing is desperately needed in Portland right now, but it turns out that's not what's going here.

Construction has now begun, and I noticed on the way by this week that there was a "Coming Soon" banner on the fencing around the construction site.

So I pulled into a nearby parking lot and got an up-close view to learn what was going in here.

"The Future Home of Queen Bee Food Mart" the sign read. A convenience store.

One of three 7-Elevens in Portland is just across the street from what is soon to be the Queen Bee Food Mart, so it looks like there's some competition on the way for them.

I had never heard of "Queen Bee Food Mart," so I looked it up and an LLC was formed in December of 2020 with an agent by the name of Phuong Neang. It's described in the filing as "a convenient store with hot and cold food." Looks like this will be the first Queen Bee Food Mart ever built.

As a regular commuter past this area, I will say that 7-Eleven can be a bit of a pain to get in and out of as it's right at the intersection of Forest Avenue and Riverside Street. Queen Bee Food Mart will be 600 feet away from that intersection and it looks like it has a bigger footprint for more parking.

We'll have to wait and see who wins the convenience store battle here when Queen Bee Food Mart opens this fall.