Gerry Drypolcher just came to the Concord planning board to listen.
A new development was planned near his home on Mountain Road, and Drypolcher showed up at several meetings to understand how it would affect his property. But the then-chairman noticed.
“He said to me, ‘It looks like you have nothing to do on Wednesday nights,’ ” Drypolcher said.
Drypolcher wasn’t appointed to the board just then, but about a year later, in March 1988, he found himself at the table. About 10 years ago, he became the chairman. And last month, after 28 years, he decided to step down from the position.
“The master plan every 10 years, I went through two of those, and I didn’t want to be involved in another one,” Drypolcher joked last week. “One way to do that is get off the board.”
But Drypolcher has overseen more than two master plans. In nearly three decades, the agendas in front of him have contained details for major development projects, from Steeplegate Mall in the early 1990s to a failed chicken processing plant last year. He led the board during ups and downs in the economy. He has been witness to successes, squabbles and a state Supreme Court vindication.
Drypolcher moved to Concord in 1971, when he and his wife, Pam, lived in an apartment on Loudon Road. Across the street was a Dairy Queen, later to become Arnie’s Place.
“We could walk across Loudon Road to the Dairy Queen anytime,” Drypolcher said. “We never even had to look both ways because there was no traffic. We watched that street grow up.”
Shortly after his appointment to the board, the D’Amante family added their most ambitious development to date on Loudon Road: Steeplegate Mall. While the shopping center has struggled in recent years and is currently for sale, Drypolcher remembered a mix of awe and anxiety at the time. More recently, the D’Amantes went to the planning board for a site plan review for a new strip mall on one of the few undeveloped lots on Loudon Road.
“Not only because it was going to be the first major mall, but there was also a real scary aspect of it,” Drypolcher said. “Because of the downtown, and what was going to happen to the businesses down there? How is the downtown going to deal with the mystique of a mall being in our backyard?”
Drypolcher recalled the busy times before the recession, saying the board would meet two or three times a month. The planning board agenda reflects “the ebb and flow of development,” he said.
“You get the market where the banks were going crazy with development,” he said. “It was pretty hectic.”
And while hours of meetings blend together, some cases still stand out.
The board once held a contentious hearing at Concord High School over a proposed shopping center on South Main Street, where Evo Rock and Fitness Gym is now. The project was denied, and despite appeals from the developer, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld that ruling in 2003.
More recently, Drypolcher oversaw multiple hearings about a chicken processing plant proposed in East Concord. Neighbors crammed into a hearing at the former Dame School until midnight. While the board eventually okayed the project, the business owner pulled out of the project.
Now, Drypolcher said he won’t stay up late to watch those long meetings on Concord TV. (His wife always tells him to turn off the replays anyway.) But at his last meeting in April, Mayor Jim Bouley presented him with a key to the city, a symbolic gesture for a man who been a gatekeeper for developers over the years. Never short on words, Drypolcher was speechless.
“I love Concord,” Drypolcher said later. “My wife and I talk about what we would do if we didn’t want to be here anymore, and we can’t think of anything.”
For sale
Ellen Lessard, the owner of Lilise Designer Resale, will sell or close her high-end consignment boutique.
Lessard opened her business at 113 Storrs St. five years ago. Citing personal reasons, she said she is now looking to spend more time with her teenage daughter and find for her next creative venture.
“I love my business, and I’m hoping somebody will carry it on for me. . . . I feel like I need to move on,” Lessard said.
Lessard, who has a background as a paralegal, worked at the University of New Hampshire School of Law before opening her business. Lilise Designer Resale sells clothing, shoes and other consignment items from high-end brands like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. She had kind words for landlord Mark Ciborowski and her longtime shoppers.
“I get a lot of good, positive feedback in the community,” Lessard said. “Without their help, there would be no Lilise.”
Lessard’s last day is May 31. Lessard is hoping to find a buyer in the meantime, but if not, the store will close. She plans to host a final sale or farewell toward the end of the month, though she hopes to be able to introduce a new owner to shoppers on that day.
“My vision for somebody else is, I hope they will continue in the same higher-end,” Lessard said. “I feel that Concord doesn’t have a lot of choices for good shopping. We have some really great boutiques, but the mall is really disappearing on us.”
In the meantime, the store will be open for business, and Lilise Designer Resale will continue to accept items from consigners.
“I want the next potential owner to have a fully stocked store,” Lessard said.
To inquire about buying the business, call the store at 715-2009 or email lilisedr@gmail.com. For more information about the business, visit liliseresale.com or the Lilise Designer Resale page on Facebook.
The Eagle has not landed
Plans to relocate Work Nest to the Eagle Hotel on North Main Street have stalled.
Commercial real estate developer Ben Kelley opened Concord’s first co-working space in September. The co-working space is designed as a shared office for professionals in different fields – in particular, those who work remotely but don’t want to work from home.
In February, Kelley announced he would sell the building to the nonprofit Hope for Recovery for an addiction recovery center. (That deal closed in April, and included the apartment building next door. Kelley purchased the building for $335,000 in 2015; after renovating both properties extensively, he sold to Cheryl Coletti and Scott Lawson for $780,000.)
Kelley works for Brady Sullivan Properties, and he was a partner on the firm’s recent purchase of the Eagle Hotel and Capital Plaza One and Two downtown. Earlier this year, he said Work Nest would transition into vacant office space in Eagle Hotel. But that move has not yet happened, and the Work Nest website and Facebook page are temporarily shut down.
Kelley said he expects Work Nest will reappear in some form, but Eagle Hotel wasn’t ready for the co-working space by the time Hope for Recovery wanted to move in. In the meantime, he is searching for the model that “makes most sense,” he said.
“We shut it down for now because we don’t want people finding us and not being able to contact us,” he said of the Facebook and web page.
The 85 S. State St. building could have accommodated up to 30 members, Kelley had said; at about six months, it had roughly 20. That number had recently dropped off; in this interim period, Kelley said he is leasing single-office space to a small number of Work Nest members.
“There wasn’t quite as strong demand with people going into it, and I don’t want to do a smaller concept,” Kelley said. “There’s a lot more planning that needs to go into it.”
One month down
This week on Main Street, crews will fine grade the sidewalks Monday and Tuesday, according to an update from the project PR team.
Also on Tuesday, paving will take place between Fayette and Concord streets. That will work slightly affect the traffic pattern on the south end of the project, and close the parking lot behind Constantly Pizza and the Abbott Bennett Group building. That day only, northbound traffic will be diverted to Thorndike Street instead of Concord Street in the interest of safety during paving.
For the rest of the week, construction teams will be installing light pole bases, in addition to electrical and irrigation conduit. This week’s schedule includes Saturday work, as crews will be raising manhole castings from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Construction will also return to North Main Street to check off a punch list of unfinished items. On Tuesday, crews will be sealing granite and brick portions of the sidewalk and bump outs. They will begin on the east side of North Main Street at Park Street and move south, then flip sides.
While the sealant cures, the city’s PR team from Louis Karno & Co. has asked pedestrians avoid walking in marked areas for 24 hours. The concrete portion of the sidewalk adjacent to buildings will not be affected.
For more information or to sign up for an email newsletter about downtown construction, visit concordmainstreetproject.com.
(Megan Doyle can be reached at 369-3321, mdoyle@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @megan_e_doyle.)