The developers looking to convert the former Steeplegate Mall into 600 housing units mixed with large-scale retail bought out a nearby property owner who had stalled the project.
Onyx Partners, which is looking to tear down most of the massive former mall complex and turn it into a mix of housing plus retail, bought the half-acre parcel the TD Bank sits on for $2.5 million. City property records show that it was appraised for $1.1 million earlier this year.
“They objected to all forms of relief, largely for leverage purposes,” Ari Pollack, an attorney for the developer, said to the Planning Board at its December meeting. “It stalled out until we could reach a mutual resolution… and so, in the end, Onyx purchased the abutting property to neutralize those objections.”
Now, Onyx will continue to seek approvals for its plans. Onyx has received all needed permissions from the Zoning Board and ran updated plans by the Planning Board for feedback last week. A formal public hearing and vote will take place sometime in the coming months.
While Onyx received city approval to demolish most of the mall due to trespassing and vandalism concerns, Susan Silverman, the now-former owner of the property the bank sits on, sued the city over those approvals. Buying the property effectively ends the lawsuit.
Attorneys for Silverman did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
With the bank parcel now in hand, Onyx has dropped $25.4 million to purchase the nearly 60-acre property. The mall property cost $18 million and the Regal Cinemas $5 million, both purchased in 2023.
The TD Bank currently on the Sheep Davis Road parcel will remain in place. The Applebee’s restaurant along Loudon Road will also stay.
The JCPenney currently part of the mall will stay put as a freestanding building, and the Zoo Health Club will relocate into space next to Altitude Trampoline Park. The remaining 425,000 square feet of the 550,000-square-foot mall would be torn down sometime in the spring, according to current plans.
The project would build three four- and five-story apartment buildings with underground parking. Sixty of those apartments would be designated workforce housing, Pollack said.
Workforce housing is a term that is often used to describe places that support working families. State law says rental developments where a majority of units have fewer than two bedrooms or exclude children can’t be considered “workforce” housing. Broadly, the term is a fluid one that’s far less regulated than “affordable” housing, where total expenses are legally capped at 30% of a renter’s income.
During a review of the project, planning board members shared concerns about bike safety, and a road that would pass through gaps in one of the buildings to access parking. They also pushed for as much natural space and landscaping as possible. In reviewing a traffic study, some board members said they hoped project leaders would encourage and prepare for traffic off Sheep Davis Road, rather than Loudon Road.
Ultimately, Chair Richard Woodfin reiterated the city’s overall praise of the project, calling it a “spark for future development.”
Pollack also reiterated, on behalf of Onyx, that the city’s zoning rules need to be modernized and are hampering projects city leaders say they want.
Over the last year, he said the project navigated a “dated” zoning ordinance, that was too detailed and “too rigid.” He also said the current rules rely too heavily on variances, and allow “opportunities” for abutters “block projects” the community may otherwise want.
The city pushed back somewhat on Pollack’s suggestion that the city’s stalled zoning update was in part to blame for Onyx’s legal woes.
“State law allows an abutting property owners to challenge the decisions of both the zoning board and planning board,” Tim Thompson, the city’s assistant community director, said in a statement. “Although the City has been reviewing changes to its zoning ordinance, an updated zoning ordinance will not necessarily prevent an abutting property owner from filing an appeal of a land use decision.”
In 2018, Concord began work to overhaul its zoning ordinances and produced a draft in 2022 under the banner of its Concord Next initiative. But the effort came to a halt, and city leaders now say they are putting off zoning changes until after the city council updates the city’s master plan, slated to take at least three years.
Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can follow her on X @cat_mclaugh and subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.
