Two months from now, the last of the heavy machinery will roll out of downtown Concord, ending nearly two years of upheaval.
City leaders, Main Street businesses, downtown shoppers and those who call the area home have eagerly anticipated the day when the last of the dust settles. When it does, they’ll point to the wider sidewalks that give ample room for outdoor dining. They’ll give a nod to the many classy touches throughout, from the stately lampposts right down to the new green spaces. They’d be right, too, to talk about how the fear of traffic gridlock has proven to be wildly overstated.
Enthusiastic as they may be in November, the real measure of the downtown project will likely be most visible come spring, when two major developments are expected to open their doors.
At the corner of Loudon Road and North Main Street, the former dilapidated Vegas Block that housed squatters and others in subpar conditions was shut down by the city in August 2014. Now named Remi’s Block after its owner, Remi Hinxhia, the gutted building will eventually include three new ground-level storefronts and 20 market-rate apartments. And around the corner on Pleasant Street is a building that was stuck in a different kind of limbo. The historic Sacred Heart Church would likely have stood empty after the consolidation of the three local parishes. Instead, the ongoing transformation of the 1930s-era church into a high-end development that will house 10 condominiums stands as a testament to imagination and ingenuity.
Dozens of business leaders and curious onlookers got an inside view of these properties last week during Intown Concord’s annual Upstairs, Downtown Walking Tour.
More than anything, both properties serve the real intent of the Main Street project, which all along has been to spur the types of mixed use developments that will make Concord’s downtown more livable. Neither project would have happened had the city not made the initial investment of $13 million to renovate Main Street. One of the two projects – Remi’s Block – took advantage of the 79E tax relief program, which gives developers who make substantial improvements to a downtown building a short-term break on their tax bill. The Monitor previously reported that Hinxhia will save more than $300,000 over five years.
So, as the city looks to keep its momentum, the question now turns to, “What’s next?” Will it be a mixed-use development on the site of the current city-owned building across from Gibson’s that once housed Employment Security? (We hope so.) Will it be a renovation of Phenix Hall into a blues and jazz club? (We’d vote for that, as well.) And at what point do developers look to places like Storrs Street for their next big project?
Whatever comes next, we’re betting the developers will point to the city’s Main Street investment as the signal they needed to help bring their vision to life.