Manchester Infill & Small Developments

Does anyone know why they are opening the new Eliot tomorrow during the night time? The counter has the building opening at 630 pm.
 
pel_north said:
Does anyone know why they are opening the new Eliot tomorrow during the night time? The counter has the building opening at 630 pm.
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Hmm. No idea. Maybe it's to accommodate people coming after work or something. Are you planning to go? If anyone does go, it would be great to get some photos of the project. The Rivers Edge development should do great things for that neighborhood and in bringing some activity to the stretch of Elm between there and downtown.
 
roughly 6 tomorrow night I think the countdown was. Still a lot of work is needed though before it is done.

Also, South River Rd. in Bedford has a bit of activity. A nice medical building of good size is nearing being done, a new bank or tax place, and the Bedford mall is getting some significant and much needed attention.

However I have no specifics on these yet, just noticed the, when driving to Merrimack.
 
OK, I looked and could not find anything on what is going on at the Bedford mall.
 
I grew up just off South River Road, so I noticed that activity when I was home a few weeks ago. I believe the Bedford Mall is being turned into more of a freestanding shopping complex with a Kohl's and that sort of thing. Certainly not great from an urban or architectural standpoint, but at least they're redeveloping the site rather than leaving a mostly empty mall sitting and putting another big box in an old farm field. I'll see what else I can dig up about the Bedford Mall. To Bedford's credit, the Master Plan that was just approved and the planning board are trying to make that more of a walkable mixed-use area and trying to attract some transit-oriented development. I think this will help the push for a better transit system.
 
A bit more about South River Road:

From the Bedford Journal:
Work on mall to start soon
Friday, October 15, 2010
By CAMERON KITTLE

The project to reinvent the Bedford Mall could break ground soon, changing a rundown, nearly empty mall into a shopping area powered by individual stores such as Kohl?s, Marshalls and Staples.

The building department is still processing building permit requests, but Bedford Planning Director Rick Sawyer said the town can expect to see demolition and construction begin on the South River Road site in two or three weeks.

The town approved the plan in August to demolish more than half of the current Bedford Mall and replace it with the larger retail stores.

Town Manager Russ Marcoux said work will begin to renovate the former Linens ?N Things location so Marshalls can move into that space, and then construction will start on a new building for Staples. Sawyer said Staples should be able to move in by springtime.

Demolition can start at the far end of the mall ? where Decathalon Sports was ? because those spots are all vacant, Marcoux said.

But Wayne Richardson, Bedford?s building code official, said a demolition permit had not been filed as of Tuesday, Oct. 12, which could cause a short delay.

The start of the process is cutting close to winter, but Sawyer said the workers should have an exterior structure built quickly so they can work indoors during the coldest months of the season.

?They have a time schedule to meet,? he said. ?They definitely will work all winter long.?

Sawyer said construction will begin on Kohl?s at the beginning of spring and should be ready by fall 2011. The store will be 90,646 square feet and sit near the north end of the new plaza.

The planning board has been working with the mall?s developer, Emmes Asset Management Co., since February 2009 to try and bring more customers to the mall. Business has been on the decline since stores began departing from the mall in recent years. Only eight of the 27 or 28 spaces for tenants are currently filled.

Sawyer said in August that the drastic development change is geared toward public demand. He said more residents want to be able to drive up to stores, buy what they want and leave, rather than wander around for hours inside a mall with small-scale stores.

The new project will satisfy those demands but also keep some of the mall?s interior hallways intact. There will be about 16 tenant spaces in the new plaza, according to the current site plans.
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There's more about the plans in the August 16, 2010 minutes of the Bedford Planning Board.

It's hardly a very compelling project, but as I said at least it's reusing an already developed and underused site. There was a conceptual plan of a dense, mixed-use development on the site for this site in the town's master plan. Obviously that would be better, but I'm not entirely fond of such self-contained, instant neighborhoods and honestly I don't see how one would work being plopped down in an old mall parking lot with a grocery store across a wide state highway and hemmed in by single-family (albeit dense) residential streets and a hotel.

Ideally, I think the Bedford Mall and expensive Macy's parking lots could be redeveloped with greater density, multi-story buildings and a mix of uses in conjunction with a frequent bus line to downtown or as the terminus of a streetcar line to downtown Manchester.

In the meantime, the small building next to the Stop n Shop gas station might offer the best option for this area: relatively dense, built up to the road with pedestrian amenities, but still distinctly suburban. At least the mall redevelopment will be much closer to the road with walkways connecting directly to the South River Road sidewalk. Even if most people still drive to and from this area, a more frequent bus and good pedestrian accommodations will allow people to take public transit here from the city and shop at multiple stores even if they're big boxes without having to keep driving and parking between them.

This area is better positioned that South Willow Street--I believe it's actually closer to downtown, and certainly to the dense West Side neighborhoods, and the area is already denser and less sprawling than South Willow. I hope in the future it becomes denser with more, true mixed-use development, but it's not going to happen with better transit being a part of the plan. If the airport train station and accompanying transit-oriented development becomes a reality, I think a frequent bus running through this area is considerably more likely and the whole area should benefit.
 
No! They can't do this, the Bedford Mall is a landmark of my childhood.
 
Muns1990 said:
No! They can't do this, the Bedford Mall is a landmark of my childhood.
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I know! I remember when there were stores in there! And that dinosaur exhibit for awhile. And especially the really creepy Christmas displays.
 
Muns1990 said:
No! They can't do this, the Bedford Mall is a landmark of my childhood.
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Mine too! I saw all three of the original Star Wars movies there; all three of which were followed by lunch at Blakes. The mall was just so dang functional and straight-forward...no crazy decor or themes going on...ah the good ol' days.
 
No childhood memories, but I do remember going to the theatre. However, I also remember going int here, and nothing was there, and asking about the theatre and some guy saying ti just shut down. Malls and movie theatres are a thing of the past with the exception of Simon malls and AMC and Regal.

So I came on here because I was just doing some project and was looking at Google maps, and although I am against highways and all for public transportation. I do actually believe that NH would benefit from a highway going from Keene, to Hillsborough and then connecting with 293 in Manchester. Or Petersborough then Keene. Something along those lines. Just Keene is not that far but takes hours to get to from the East. And Manchester being the city of NH it is would benefit from the additional people who could use the city and vice versa. (And so I do not seem that bad of a person, Boston Express (I love their service) or another bus company could add a bus route to Keene) (Which is a nice town but in the middle of nowhere, well no, it just is hard to access))
 
ledjes said:
Mine too! I saw all three of the original Star Wars movies there; all three of which were followed by lunch at Blakes. The mall was just so dang functional and straight-forward...no crazy decor or themes going on...ah the good ol' days.
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Side story, My dad showed me the Star Wars (I think I am younger than you guys) and he was showing me them, and then got pissed off that he F'd up and showed them to me and my brothers in the wrong order!

Later to discover that three more were coming and ultimately it didn't matter. But it was funny how sad and angry my dad got about messing up.
 
Matt said:
ok boys. have fun with this one:

http://transportation.blog.state.ma.us/blog/2011/03/mbta-new-lechmere-station-spurs-development.html
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Some good news in light of the recent bad news coming from Concord regarding commuter rail. What kills me though is that the rights to the trackage were one of the things previously holding up rail service between New Hampshire and Boston. Now that's taken care of, but the other things that have been accomplished are in the process of being undone, hopefully just temporarily or unsuccessfully. I am completely confident that the commuter rail will happen, but I'm not sure when.
 
Not new development, but NH Chronicle just did a piece on NHIA. NHIA seems to be doing a lot to bring young people into the city and vitality to downtown.
 
Does anyone with access to a print copy of the UL want to share any more on this:

Only in Print: Hooksett seniors may get free ride
By DAN O'BRIEN
Union Leader Correspondent

HOOKSETT ? The Manchester Transit Authority wants to provide free bus service to senior citizens in Hooksett to allow them to shop at local stores.
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Without knowing the specifics, this sounds pretty good to me. Provide a valuable social service to members of the community while improving service coverage in order, in part, to encourage economic growth and development. It seems like the MTA has been doing a lot to try to expand coverage and ridership recently, but it needs better funding and more of a commitment from Manchester and surrounding communities.
 
And better defined bus stops with bus route maps. I hate the way it is now. Too confusing.
 
MonopolyBag said:
And better defined bus stops with bus route maps. I hate the way it is now. Too confusing.
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Agreed. I'm not sure if you've seen this post on Fortress Manchester from over the summer regarding the same issue. Again, I think the MTA is really trying to improve service within its very tight constraints: Mike Whitten of the MTA wrote a lengthy comment on that post.

All that said, Manchester really needs a transit system with at least many, major lines with headways of much less than an hour (more like every 7-15 or 20 minutes during peak times on many lines), buses running into the evening and night (even at reduced frequency), greater access, and better coordination. I believe Portland's Metro buses better utilize transit corridors, so for instance multiple bus lines run along the same street before branching off allowing for reduced headways in dense areas.
 
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