Developers are not even halfway finished with the largest single development project the town of Scarborough has ever seen, but right now they are focused on giving the town something it has never had: An actual downtown.

“We want to make sure it’s done right, and we want to make sure it’s what people want,” said Rocco “Rocky” Risbara III, who is spearheading the Downs development project along with fellow developers Peter and Richard Michaud.

What is referred to in Scarborough as the Downs property encompasses far more than the iconic harness racetrack that officially closed with its last race in the fall of 2020. The track sits on a tiny portion of a massive undeveloped 525-acre property that has rested in the geographic center of Scarborough since the town’s incorporation.

The property remained untouched until 2018, when the entire parcel went up for sale. Risbara, who grew up in Scarborough and now runs Risbara Bros., a construction company that has operated out of the town for more than 50 years, saw an opportunity to build something valuable. He and the MIchauds, whom Risbara said he went to high school with, bought the property in January 2018.

“We had the shovel in the ground that spring,” Risbara recalled.

Since then, the project has taken off, with 261 residential units, 39 units of affordable senior housing units, a 12-bed memory care home and a 54-lot business and industrial park. The latter’s lots sold out in less than two years, less than half the time developers expected, Risbara said. Among the industrial and commercial businesses is Westbrook-based veterinary products producer IDEXX, which purchased a 22-acre site for a purpose the company has not yet officially announced.

Developers worked with town officials to earn tax breaks on the property, avoid overdeveloping — 40% of the property will remain open space — and satisfy other requirements.

One of the conditions set by town officials from the very beginning was the creation of a downtown area on the property. Town Planner Jay Chace noted that this is something Scarborough has always lacked. The town’s makeup until now, he said, has been a series of small villages collected together in a rough ring around the Downs property. 

“(The city) never had a sort of concentrated downtown,” he said.

The exact makeup of the downtown area remains to be seen, but there have been many discussions on the subject. Officials even created a Downtown Committee, made up of experts, town officials and ordinary residents who spent months earlier this year mulling over what Scarborough’s new downtown might look like.

Resident Travis Kennedy, who served as the committee’s chair, said he wanted the town to have a proper village green.

“That was something that all of the committee members agreed upon,” he said.

The committee suggested a modest, triangular space about one acre in size, Kennedy said, to serve as a central gathering space. Chace noted the area would also likely have mixed-use zoning, which means housing and commercial development around the green, but he argued the gathering space would resonate more with residents than any businesses that move into the area.

“It’s not the restaurant or the store that people go to,” he said. “It’s the gathering place that brings everyone together.”

Risbara, who also sat on the committee, said the discussions included looking at various other downtown concepts in similar communities nationwide. Despite the interest in creating commercial space for businesses such as restaurants, Risbara said he also wants to see housing in the area and amenities such as a local grocery store.

“We don’t want to create a space where at 5:30 at night they roll up the sidewalks and go home,” he said. “We want people to live there.”

Risbara said he believes early work, such as infrastructure and mapping out streets, will begin next summer. He said he expects more development to follow, but right now he is focusing on getting the downtown area right first.

“We’re in the bottom of the third, top of the fourth inning,” he said. “We’ve still got a way to go.”