The Miss Portland Diner is expected to reopen by December at its new location on Marginal Way, in Portland's redeveloping Bayside neighborhood. The City Council unanimously approved a beer-and-wine license for the landmark diner on Monday, and Thomas Manning plans to finalize his purchase of the authentic Worcester Lunch Car and 6,000 square feet of city land in August.

Manning said on Monday that he will invest more than $1 million in the project, including construction of a kitchen and a dining- room addition that he hopes will start by the end of August.

It's a lot to manage for the Newsweek magazine executive, who grew up on Munjoy Hill and lives in New Jersey with his wife and their young family.

"I feel like the guy in the circus with the plates on sticks, trying to keep them all spinning," Manning said, "but I'm excited. It's time to get on with it."

Manning, who is director of administration at the New York City- based magazine, has been negotiating with Portland officials for more than a year to buy the 58-year-old diner.

The diner's former owner, Randall Chasse, gave it to the city in March 2004 after trying to sell it several times, including on the Internet.

The diner has been in storage since it was removed from its former location at Marginal Way and Hanover Street, where an office building now stands.

Before Manning expressed an interest in the diner, deals with two other prospective buyers fell through.

The City Council approved a contract with Manning last August. He agreed to pay $25,000 for the diner and $75,000 for a bus shelter site farther down Marginal Way, across from the Wild Oats Market and beside Interstate 295.

The diner will be near two highway exits and several residential and commercial developments that are either planned or under construction, including an apartment complex next door that will house about 400 college students.

Portland architect David Leasure designed the 50-seat addition to complement original features of the 46-seat diner, Manning said.

The diner will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serving affordable diner food with a Maine flair and some upscale evening specials.

Manning said he will oversee construction and management of the diner from New Jersey. He already has begun interviewing and hiring the management staff.

If the diner is successful, Manning said, he plans to move back to Portland with his wife, Stefanie, a marketing executive for Oprah magazine who already is developing a diner Web site.

No one could be more pleased that the diner project is moving forward than Lee Urban, Portland's planning and development director.

Urban made finding a new owner for the diner a pet project.

He sees it as symbolic of Bayside's transformation from an industrial hub to a commercial and residential gateway to Maine's largest city.

"The diner is coming back to the heart of Bayside, an area the city is promoting as pedestrian- and community-friendly," Urban said. "The diner will be a meeting place for people like me, who went there for years, and newcomers who will live and work in the area in the future."

Originally published online here: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=121172&ac=PHnws