After three years of headaches for tenants — and yet another lawsuit between the city and landlord Geoffrey Rice — the scaffolding at the Trelawny Building in downtown Portland is coming down.
According to Greg Shinberg of Shinberg Consulting, which has been managing the project, the scaffolding at 655 Congress St. should be completely removed within the next week to 10 days, weather dependent. After that, crews will use a lift to conduct repair work on the first two floors and the job will be complete.
As of Tuesday, about one-third of the scaffolding had been taken down, revealing the restored façade that was required by the city and its historic preservation office in 2023 after chunks of masonry began crumbling into the street.
Built in 1907, the building is located in the Congress Street Historic District and is subject to historic preservation code requirements.
The initial order from the city gave Rice one year to complete permanent fixes to bring it up to code, which was then extended to October 2025. At the time of the extension, in December 2024, Shinberg told staff that the project would be complete in six to eight months.
That same month, the city issued a notice of violation “based on the failure of the property owner to complete the work within the time frame set.” In a December 2025 update, Shinberg said the project was expected to be completed in mid-2026.
Shinberg said Tuesday that the project has been complicated but that he’s proud of the work that’s been done. He said the safety of workers and residents has been the number one concern throughout.
He said replacing the windows will be a second phase, but that Shinberg will likely not be involved.
Ahead of the initial court hearing in June, the building’s tenants’ union and its ground-floor business tenant said the ongoing work had created conditions that caused people to move out. A salon tenant closed and moved, and the owner of the Green Hand Bookshop said the work had been detrimental to her business.
Michelle Souliere, the store’s owner, said Wednesday that the “scaffolding barricade” coming down “will bring a much-needed breath of fresh air and freedom to the neighborhood.”
“Hopefully the heavy losses incurred during this ordeal will serve as a lesson to the city that accountability extends beyond paperwork and loopholes, and reminds them that hundreds if not thousands of Portlanders have encountered detrimental living and working conditions that could have been mitigated much earlier had better city oversight and community involvement been part of the original plan,” she said.
The city’s notice of violation told Rice that the violations could carry monetary penalties in an amount not less than $100 per day, per violation, and that penalties would be assessed beginning Oct. 14, 2025, and would continue to accrue until all violations are remedied.
City spokesperson Jessica Grondin said attorneys for the city and Rice are scheduled for a status conference on Nov. 6.
Rice, who owns dozens of properties in Portland, has faced a number of previous violations of the city’s rent control ordinance. In March, a Superior Court judge affirmed a 2025 ruling of the Portland rent board that required Rice to refund tenants he overcharged and pay $170,500 in fines.