Manchester Infill & Small Developments

wow. 1.5 million is what Portland had in 2005, with a much smaller facility. Are you sure those numbers are correct? I heard that Manchester had somewhere in the vicinity of 4 million in 2005.
 
Yeah--the numbers are definitely off. According to the MHT website, there were 4.4 million passengers in 2005, and 3.72 in 2008. Portland, by comparison, has 1.7 million in 2007. I wonder if the AP number is only those departing from Manchester and the other numbers include those departing and arriving. I know that the Portland Jetport is currently expanding, but I don't think it's necessarily bad that Manchester isn't looking at expanding. It's a good sized airport in general, and a very large one for a city of Manchester's size.

Going forward, I think it's a good idea to focus on maintaining its quality and size, as well as improving its connection to Boston. Most importantly, however, will be making it work better for Manchester. Presently, it serves as an auxiliary airport for Boston, northern Massachusetts and southern Maine as much as it does as a primary airport for Manchester. I think if they were to connect it to downtown Manchester via a rapid bus line, as well as improving transit in the city in general, you'd see greater investment in downtown than currently. If people didn't have to rent a car or grab a taxi to get downtown, it would be much easier to get to a convention downtown, etc.
 
Speaking of Fortress Manchester, which is a great website, the same guy who runs it is one of the people behind the Carrotmob in Manchester. They just had an event with huge turnout at a bakery in Rimmon Heights. I think this group is great, and it seems like there is really growing enthusiasm to support local businesses in the city. Places like this make neighborhoods and the city as a whole a much better place to live, and they have a more immediate impact than most development projects, not to mention spurring redevelopment in neighborhoods. Great to see.
 
Yes, those numbers sound more like what I remember hearing in 2005 (when both cities were booming with growth and development, and when I really started to get into this stuff).

Given the fact that it's half of what the numbers you posted were, I assume it was flight departures only.
 
FAA CY 2008 Enplanements with US Rank and % gain/loss:

Manchester #68 3,669,750 - 4.48%
Portland #94 1,752,204 +6.84%
Burlington #100 1,495,118 +6.31%

Official CY 2009 enplanements will be released in December. The Government is always a year behind in it's stats!
 
I agree with this 100%. But it may also have something to due with the lack of business growth in the Manchester area. Ultimately, who rides those planes, vacationers and business people. Economy is bad, so there goes the vacationers, and no new office buildings have been built and there are many vacancies. If the economy was better I would see there being more demand for the Manchester Airport, bringing in more money and potential expansion fo the airport.
 
It's a small building, but this is good news:

New Life for Post Office Fruit
MANCHESTER ? BACK IN THE 1950s, Greg Barrett's father shined shoes at a Chestnut Street storefront.
And while shoe shining can be an honorable profession, such was not the case for Barrett's father. The shoe shine trade was the front for a bookmaking operation behind the storefront, Barrett said.
A real estate developer who specializes in historic properties, Barrett recently took over the ramshackle building at Chestnut and Amherst streets where his father once shined shoes and cleaned pockets.

Greg Barrett of Kas-Bar Realty is restoring the Post Office Fruit Luncheonette at the corner of Amherst and Chestnut streets in Manchester. He plans to bring the diner and store back to its original condition. (DAVID LANE)
Such are the stories emerging as Barrett begins to restore the old Post Office Fruit Luncheonette, which closed last year after 46 years of operation.
Barrett said the 2 1/2-story building is the oldest wood-frame commercial building in Manchester, dating to the 1840s. Originally, it was the home of Judge Samuel Bell, the father of a New Hampshire governor, Barrett said.
Over the years, it was a corner grocery store and a candy company. But it is best known as a diner, strategically located an equal distance from the old Union Leader building and the former downtown post office.
"It was such an important part of Manchester for so many years," said Jay Minkarah, director of economic development for the city of Manchester. "Bringing back not just the exterior but the interior is very important culturally and socially for the city."
Last year, longtime owners Kay and Effie Dovas sold the building and the business they had operated for 46 years. It was sided in asphalt shingles, and by the time the couple closed their doors, the lunch counter offered the bare necessities: coffee and soda, french fries, grilled fare such as hamburgers and hot dogs and, of course, lottery tickets.
Barrett is in line to receive a city matching grant of up to $6,700 to create a new facade for the building. He wants to restore it as close as possible to what it looked like in 1840, he said.
Inside, he plans to create a diner with an ambience dating to the 1930s, when the building first hosted a diner. He said he's heard from about 10 restaurateurs interested in operating the diner.
Barrett said he's constantly hearing stories from people about the diner. A parent or relative worked at the post office or the Union Leader. Or they ate at Post Office Fruit as a kid. Or they knew of the bookie operation on the Chestnut Street side of the building.
"That building has so many memories for people," Barrett said. "There's just so much nostalgia with that place. There's a certain mystique that permeates it."
Barrett said he is unearthing mementos as he goes through the building, and he plans to incorporate the knickknacks into the diner.
More than a historical restoration, the redevelopment helps to expand the downtown onto side streets, Minkarah said.
"Downtown is more than just Elm Street," he said.
And with a big law firm, a courthouse and the New Hampshire Institute of Art within a short walk, the diner will have opportunities to draw lots of customers.
"It represents another fairly significant private investment in our downtown," Minkarah said, "which is always encouraging."
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The Post Office Fruit building is at the corner of Chestnut and Amherst Streets facing Victory Park. It's an odd, small, but prominent building given its location. I had no idea the interior was as well preserved as you can see in this review, so I'm glad the building is being preserved and fixed up. Given all the great, new restaurants moving in, I think this sort of connection to the past is a nice balance.
 
Giant, mixed-use development planned for Londonderry:

LONDONDERRY ? The new owners of more than 600 acres, including Woodmont Orchards, envision a $1 billion investment over 20 years that will transform Londonderry with a new town center and a traditional community feel.

"Our intent is to bring something that's an amenity to the community," said Michael Kettenbach, a principal in Pillsbury Realty Development LLC.
While some property acquisition deals have yet to close, developers estimate they soon will have invested $18 million to $20 million in land near Interstate 93 Exit 4. Two closings took place Thursday.

Kettenbach and associates will control 629 acres straddling the highway, with just five acres in Derry and the rest in Londonderry.

"By any standard, state, regional or national, this is a pretty ambitious and large-scale development plan," Londonderry Town Manager David Caron said.
Details of the project, which is north of Route 102, will be aired at a design charette this week at the old Woodmont Orchards storage building, 15 Pillsbury Road.

It incorporates a retro "new urbanist" vision of walkable neighborhoods, nearby shops, parks and recreational facilities on the west side of the highway.

More than 1 million square feet of retail and commercial space is contemplated on the east side of the highway. Over time, it could include light manufacturing, a hotel, conference center and school.

"I think part of the driving force is lovability," said Annie Michels, who with her father, land use attorney John Michels, is advising the developers. "European villages are lovable. Annapolis is lovable. Portsmouth is lovable. People enjoy being there."

There also is the promise of property tax revenue.

"We are creating something that is tax positive, which will be an amenity and an asset for the community," John Michels said.

"It will have things that the community doesn't have that people wish that they had, but it will be tax positive," he said.

Asked to estimate the tax impact, Town Manager Caron said it was too early in the process. "I try not to make those kind of predictions. I'm sure the needs, demands of different types of uses will change," he said.

Attorney Michels said, "Because we can go and do things like commercial in addition to residential . . . we can balance that (so) we don't ever build any more housing than is more than offset by things that are positive tax wise," said Michels, 66.

"Here you have a developer who can self-finance," he said.
Thomas J. Freda, a lawyer and former town budget committee member, said, "I'm sure the town is going to take in a lot more taxes than when it was Woodmont Orchards because (there is a very low tax on farm land)."

Freda said he didn't think the new housing would have a significant impact on the public schools because enrollment has declined 10 percent over the past five years.

Superintendent of Schools Nathan S. Greenberg said school-age children account for roughly a quarter of the town's population.

John Michels said after the master plan is approved developers will have to do individual site plans.

"Even if the economy stayed the way it is these (new urbanist communities) tend to do better than elsewhere," he said. "I guess that's one of the keys."

John Michels, consultant to Pillsbury Realty Development LLC, points out the area for the proposed 629-acre planned village-style development in Londonderry.

So far, the only component of the plan to receive approval is the relocation of Market Basket to the former Sears Essentials space in the retail plaza near Exit 4.

Kettenbach is the head of RMD, a private firm which handles real estate management, leasing and construction for Demoulas Super Markets Inc., operator of the DeMoulas and Market Basket stores.

The orchard is a private venture and unrelated to his work for the grocery chain, Kettenbach said.

The Market Basket approval requires the developers to study a new access road from Garden Lane through Woodmont Orchards to Pillsbury Road. Garden Lane currently ends at the state Park and Ride lot near the highway.
The project depends on completion of Exit 4A, which will tie together land on opposite sides of the highway.

It also depends on winning town approval for a master plan under the town's new Planned Unit Development ordinance. A PUD allows developers to create a master plan for a large project in its entirety rather than submitting plans for individual pieces.

The idea has been germinating since 1987, Kettenbach said, but he worked quietly in the background before announcing it in late August.

Some construction could begin next spring, Kettenbach said.

No formal plan has been submitted to the town, according to Londonderry Town Planner Tim Thompson said.

"Until I've got something hard and fast in front of me, it's hard for me to speculate," Thompson said.

"The only thing I can envision that the public may have some difficulty grasping is the overall density of the project," which is counter to traditional development in the town, Thompson said.

"Londonderry is a traditionally agricultural community that has developed in a suburban fashion for decades," he said.

Some would consider the town's one-acre lots and cul de sacs as suburban sprawl, he said.

"Londonderry has no real town center," he said. "It has just kind of morphed and developed organically over the last two decades."

Londonderry Town Manager Caron said the planned unit development zoning ordinance adopted this year for large parcels was driven by concern for the future of industrial land immediately south of Manchester Airport and predates the Woodmont Orchards project.

It was recommended in the town's 2004-05 comprehensive plan.
"I applaud their plan to engage the community in a charette . . . which would allow the community to review their proposals," Caron said.

The town review will focus on how the project fits with the character of the community. "With any development, we want to make sure that town services are not overly burdened," Caron said.

Londonderry voters authorized a $5 million bond for the town's share of construction of Exit 4A, he said.

"Of that amount of money, the town has expended almost $1 million on engineering expenses to obtain approval from the Federal Highway Administration on the draft and final environmental impact statements," he said.

The Woodmont Orchards, which sold apples wholesale, hasn't been worked the past two years though the trees are a reminder of a once thriving business.
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100905woodmontgraphic_1000p.jpg
 
Interesting. It is things like this that will make the communities overall much better. Big thinking.
 
I completely agree--I wish it was being proposed over existing sprawl instead of mostly over open space, but overall this is much better land use than what exists in suburban New Hampshire, and is likely to be better connected to Manchester via public transit than what exists.
 
I really like this idea. It sounds like Londonderry is like many towns in Maine surrounding urbanized areas in that it has no identifiable town center. The one that immediately jumps to mind (although there are several) is Scarborough, which contemplated something similar to this in 2008. There is a 400 acre race track in the middle of town, south of the airport, which is primarily vacant land with no utilities hookups and which plans to relocate to another town. the racetrack sought town and state approval in 2008 to use some of the revenue from a racino, if allowed, toward creation of a Main Street in this area (though not as extensive as Londonderry's it seems). Town and State rejected the proposal for a racino so those plans stalled. Now they may be back, but they are nowhere near as developed as Londonderry's. I think it would be great to bring a new urbanist community to NH, although labeling it as such has the potential to make it seen as kind of a toy caricature of a real town center. This could be avoided, though, by building in stages, which it seems the developer is planning on. Building in stages may also overcome a lot of the initial resistance to the project.

The reason the farmland has such low tax rates is that, many towns that experience growth pressures artificially lower taxable land value in order to preserve farmland and allow the business to stay up and running. They do this by assessing it at its farm value rather than at what's known as its "highest and best use" value. This prevents farmland from being overtaken by sprawl when a farmer is unable to pay rising taxes on land that appreciates in value faster than the price of goods he or she sells rises. So, if even with this reality, the farm is STILL willing to sell out, then demand must be pretty high for a project like this.

One thing I was unsure about after reading the article is whether this project would be built on both sides of the freeway. I always thought it would have been cool to see that project in Boston a few years ago go forward (the one which would have built in the airspace super-adjacent to the road). I know that's unrelated, but I hate how roads bisect development when they don't have to.
 
FrankLloydMike said:
I completely agree--I wish it was being proposed over existing sprawl instead of mostly over open space, but overall this is much better land use than what exists in suburban New Hampshire, and is likely to be better connected to Manchester via public transit than what exists.
Click to expand...

I agree, I am all for preserving land. But I also hate when land is "wasted" and shit developments are built rather than multi-use well planned development. If better plans go into development, cities are nicer and more welcoming. Towns make use of their land wisely, over all, there will be more open land, and the developed land is more appealing.

There needs to be a balance, and although I would rather see all of Nashua Rd. there re developed rather than new development on farm land, this is not going to happen.

One thing I find interesting is the use of land, and redevelopment. But I also find myself cringing when there is a sign up in Salem "80+ acres, last open land in Salem, for sale for lot development!"

But the difference in my eyes is this is in rural Northern Salem, not in the center. If somewhere just off of rt. 28 was to be redeveloped / developed further with a smart plan, then I would be all for it.
 
There will be updates, should we start a new thread on this Orchard Commons?

And based on what I think Frank said, yes about the Manchester thing. The reason big cities work are because they are connected to so many other communities in the area.

No Manchester is only a Mill city, as it is I am surprised at its size and growth, but if surrounding communities are developed with proper transportation, Manchester will grow as well.
 
Manchester is actually much more than a mill city, although it started off as one and obviously still has that image to shed somewhat. It occupies a position of regional importance similar to that of Portland in Maine or Burlington in Vt. If you draw a line around Boston, you see that it has three satellite cities of roughly similar size, Providence to the south, Worcester to the west, and Manchester to the north. Manchester is the smallest of these three because it is the only one that lies in the direction of rural land as opposed to increasing urban centers. Mill cities are those like Sanford, Maine. Manchester has its faults, as do all cities, but it also has a ton of untapped potential.

I think there should be a new thread on this project, and I am considering even attending the charette (a charette, for those who don't know, is a public engagement process).
 
Yeah, Manchester (unlike Portland) is not near water. Providence is also near water. Manchester is more like Worcester in terms of being away from water. Water clearly has an effect on growth of a city. NH overall though is growing. Kind of sad how land is lost, but its reality. NH is not the state it use to be. Vermont is the new NH in terms of being rural.
 
A response to this discussion on the Londonderry/Woodmont thread that I thought belonged back here:

MonopolyBag said:
OK well sorry for getting those mixed up. Then Manch. pushes for affordable, not low income. But the affordable housing in the middle of the rougher parts of the city are not going to change anything. And I assume usually attract lower income families. I think the city needs to do a bit more to make some fo those neighborhoods nicer.
Click to expand...

Anyway, you're completely right about the city needing to invest in those neighborhoods. The city started doing that with Rimmon Heights and it was supposed to be followed up in other neighborhoods, but I get the sense that that was a leftover project from the Baines years that Guinta implemented early on but then dropped. Either way, Rimmon Heights is really improving, and I think the city center neighborhood best positioned to take off as a vibrant, mixed-income, mixed-use neighborhood. It also was in a better place than some of the inner East Side neighborhoods, but the city should follow up its successes on the West Side (while also committing to more work there) with more attention to other urban neighborhoods.

Unlike some other stuff, this is not a chicken and egg thing--investment by the city and improvement to infrastructure (including planting trees, etc) will breed private investment, including by those in the neighborhood, which will increase property values (not to mention quality of life), which will result in higher tax returns, which will pay for the initial investment. There are also some good non-profit groups like Neighborworks that are investing in improvements and property renovations in inner city neighborhoods. These efforts by the city and non-profits are complementary and will certainly improve the quality of life for current residents, who the groups are engaging for input and assistance, but who for the most part do not have the means to make such investments themselves. It will also make the neighborhoods more attractive to private development and eventually for others to choose to live and open shops there.

That obviously brings up the benefits and dangers of gentrification, but I think the best hope is for owner-occupied housing in the lower-income, city center neighborhoods to get a foothold, for the city to make improvements, and hopefully current residents will have better job prospects and quality of life, allowing them to not be pushed out as new people move in. The pattern of lower-income neighborhoods becoming gentrified is well-established and generally improves the vibrancy of the city and the neighborhood itself, but at the expense of residents who don't have many good options or the ability to take part in civic improvement projects. I think the best neighborhoods, though, are those that have been able to couple gentrification and new residents with, rather than displacing the previous residents. In Manchester, where the city center neighborhoods are by far the most ethnically diverse, but often among the lowest income places in the state, there's a great opportunity for a wonderfully diverse community to take hold if civic improvement and gentrification can be done well.
 
So I went to the Chili Copetition at Manchester today. Which BTW was good.

But I noticed behind Vet Memorial Park, that building is basically being gutted inside and out. The walls are actually being torn down. What is going on there? Just curious.
 
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