Although the business world continues to be in turmoil, with the pandemic scrambling labor supply, customer demand and struggling supply chains, and America’s rising interest rates squeezing investment, the Concord area saw a good chunk of commercial development in 2022. Here are some highlights.

One of the biggest pieces if business news in the region was the announcement by Bow-based commercial fryer manufacturer Pitco that it would build a 365,000-square-foot facility – about three-quarters the size of Steeplegate Mall – off Manchester Street near the border of Pembroke.

The plant, located at 15 Integra Drive, will combine Pitco’s three existing locations in Bow, Concord and Pembroke into one complex with offices, manufacturing and warehouse spaces where fryers, water cookers and other restaurant equipment will be built. About 400 jobs will be based there.

While it’s a win for Concord it’s a loss for Bow and Pembroke. Those towns received property tax revenue from Pitco’s current operations – $145,000 a year for Pembroke, $40,000 for Bow – that will be sharply curtailed once the company moves.

Another big win for Concord is the return of Grappone Mazda, which will move from the Grappone dealerships alongside the I-93/I-89 interchange in Bow to a standalone site on Manchester Street. Construction has begun on the site, which sold Jeeps and Pontiacs under the Grappone name in the 1980s and recently was a wholesale site.

The move is being made because there isn’t room at the main Grappone site for the expansion. Mazda dealerships around around the country are expanding and upgrading showrooms as the company works to differentiate itself in the U.S. market.

2022 also saw a development that was more than a dozen years in the making: The long-awaited opening of a supermarket in Penacook.

Early plans to put a supermarket near Exit 17 of I-93 were scuttled when the city placed size limits on the parcel in 2008 so it wouldn’t compete with attempts to lure a supermarket to downtown Penacook. After those plans fell through – apartments have been built at the former tannery site once pegged for a store – the size limits were lifted and development plans proceeded.

The Market Basket finally opened in September. Also open at the Merchant’s Way development is a a stand-alone state liquor store, a Home Goods, a Wendy’s and some Tesla electric-car chargers. The Mobil gas station with Dunkin’ Donuts remains open.

Concord developer Steve Duprey had two big stories this year.

One is the continuing evolution of the huge former Lincoln Financial property near Penacook Street. The State of New Hampshire has a $70 million agreement to rent office space for 20 years as the new home of the Department of Justice, which includes the Attorney General’s office. The Department of Justice building at 33 Capitol Street next to the State House, will be demolished to make way for a new legislative parking garage.

Secondly, construction will start soon on a five-story commercial building between the Concord Food Co-op and the Bank of New Hampshire Stage on Main Street, with a restaurant, offices and an event space. An 1854 Victorian home on the site is expected to be demolished after attempts to relocate it failed.

In Bow, the huge DHL Distribution Center, a 244,000-square-foot warehouse – more than four football fields of space – that holds all the alcohol sold in the state’s 67 liquor stores, will be expanded by 27,235 square feet to accommodate increased inventory.

LEF Farms in Loudon will expand its hydropower greenhouse from 1 acre to 14 acres, following its acquisition by New York-based BrightFarms. The work will be at existing Route 106 site.

One business development that’s hard for downtown Concord to miss is the expansion of Capital Shopping Center on Storrs Street. After years of looking the same, this 60-year-old plaza is getting a new building in the parking area that will hold a casual restaurant, a Starbucks with a drive-thru and 6,000 square feet of retail space.

And in terms of reader response per square foot of development, perhaps none of these equal the news that Popeye’s will soon open one of its fried-chicken restaurants on Loudon Road, a first for Concord. It will be next to the Harbor Freight store, which is in the previous Toys R Us location.

Not all business news was good in 2022, of course. A number of long-time businesses shut their doors.

For long-time Concord residents, perhaps the saddest news was the closing of Concord Photo Service on North Main Street, a business that dates back in various forms to 1904, including decades as Concord Camera.

Owner Michael St. Germain, who has worked in or owned the business for 52 years, retired and couldn’t find a buyer. He said that despite the way digital photography superseded the job of developing film and printing pictures, business was still pretty good. “I’m tapped out. … I don’t want to be standing behind the counter when I fall over dead,” he told the Monitor in May.

In August, the area saw a sadly familiar story play out not once but twice: Warner Pharmacy closed in August after 10 years in business and Penacook Pharmacy shut in April after 53 years. They follow a trend of independent pharmacies not being able to compete with chains like Walgreens and CVS, partly because of the systems by which pharmacies acquire patients and get paid known as pharmacy benefit managers.

Veanos Italian Kitchen on Manchester Street closed in April, much to the dismay of its devoted diners, as part of redevelopment plans. But owner George Georgopolis moved to Beanie’s Bar and Grill at the intersection of Routes 129 and 106 in Loudon, run by his son, Nasi.

WOW Fried Chicken on Pleasant Street shut after seven years serving an all-American meal with Middle Eastern flair, with owner Maher Abbas turning it into a cigar lounge – a business that requires less hard-to-find labor and is less affected by fluctuating costs.

On a happier note, downtown Concord saw a bunch of new retail openings.

Several restaurants were among them including New Hampshire Pizza Co. on Main Street, opened by the owner of three Dos Amigos restaurants; EatXactly Cakes, crafting specialty cakes at 5 Eagle Square; and The Bean & Bakery, formerly White Mountain Gourmet Coffee on Pleasant Street.

Concord got its third craft brewery in 2022 when Feathered Friend Brewing opened on South Main Street.

Since people do not live by food alone, there’s also Makers on Main, which features up to 40 vendors selling handmade and handcrafted products. They moved into space formerly occupied by Simply Birkenstock, which took over the storefront vacated by Concord Photo Service. 

And we can’t talk about new businesses without mentioning the most eye-catching of them all: Teatotaller, the LGBTQ-friendly cafe that adorned its Main Street frontage with enough bright pink paint to adorn an entire  battalion of lawn flamingos.

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