The buildings that form the Portland Co. complex opened in 1846 as a locomotive foundry, said their owner, Phineas Sprague. More than 620 locomotives were built there to serve the Portland-to-Montreal rail line. The property is for sale, but Sprague said he hasn't received any serious offers, so the Portland Flower Show is in no danger of leaving anytime soon. Sprague said visitors to the flower show seem to enjoy walking through the enormous brick halls. "I've tried to keep the buildings pretty much the same because they are treasures," he said.

n Phineas Sprague, owner of The Portland Company site, said no barriers are needed in his case. "Clearly, the buildings are historic. We understand that, and that's why we've been taking care of them," Sprague said, so for him, a lack of legal restrictions doesn't mean that anything goes. Portland's master plan for the eastern end of the waterfront calls for historic buildings to be preserved, although Greater Portland Landmarks said there are few legal restrictions. Still, tearing down the historic buildings "is unacceptable," Sprague said.

Phineas Sprague Phineas Sprague, owner of the Portland Company, said the easements were needed because the company made steel for the rail line connecting Portland to Montreal and it had to load its products onto trains. The railroad turned the land over to the city more than 20 years ago, but the easements to the Portland Company remained. To clear the legal route for some of the development plans, the city had to get rid of the easements. Sprague said he offered to trade the easements for the right to expand his marina, but the city refused. Sprague said he's not celebrating the ruling. "I am in tears," he said, noting that several of his friends were involved in the condo projects that fell victim to the recession as the fight over the easements dragged on. "This is not a sweet moment." If the city had made a more reasonable offer at the outset, he said, those projects would likely have been built and occupied by now. "I don't think we should be looking across a dirt parking lot," he said.

Phineas Sprague Jr., owner of The Portland Co., a 10-acre complex also on Fore Street, is unwilling to give up an 1850 railroad easement his company holds on the city-owned lot that Riverwalk wants to develop. Sprague has been negotiating with city officials to drop the easement in exchange for the right to expand his marina onto city-owned waterfront near the $14 million cruise-ship terminal.Sprague says he will have no financial incentive to expand the marina if Marino and Farley don't redevelop their property. "We have to start from scratch," Sprague said.

"We feel as if the flower show has come home," said Phineas Sprague, the owner of the Portland Company Complex that hosted southern Maine's flower and garden show from 1997-2002.Sprague, who has also produced successful boat shows at his facility for many years, cleared all the boats out of several of his buildings to make room for the flowers, trees, shrubs, stone, soil and mulch.