A drive-thru Starbucks is closer to appearing in the parking lot of the Capital Shopping Center, part of a proposed development that acts as a sort of stand-in for the denser, taller development that the city would like to see there.

Concord has approved a zoning variance to allow the drive-thru near the intersection of Storrs Street and the Pleasant Street Extension, where such facilities aren’t allowed. Brixmor Capitol, owner of the half-century-old Capital Shopping Center, has previously presented proposals to build a casual restaurant, a Starbucks with a drive-thru and 6,000 square feet of retail space in the parking area, facing onto Storrs Street and separate from the current plaza.

“We haven’t received an application yet but they’ll probably submit it sometime soon with the Starbucks included and the drive-thru,” said Deputy City Manager Carlos Baia.

The city’s long-term hopes for the area that includes Storrs Street, called the Opportunity Corridor Performance district, is for a mix of multi-story retail, service and housing that would be more pedestrian-friendly and less car dependent.

“We’re trying to emulate what you’d see on Main Street,” said Baia.

Single-story drive-thru eateries are not part of that vision. But the obstacle to converting Capital Shopping Plaza, according to the owners, are long-term leases with some current tenants that constrain major changes to the existing structure until 2035.

“Considering this restriction and time frame, developing the site with less intensity in the near term over the next two decades could be an effective phased approach to reaching the long-term economic development and density goals of the City,” is how City Planner Heather Shank put it in a June 26 report to the City Council supporting the zoning change.

Baia said city planners have largely been pleased with the proposal as presented so far. “The elevations look quite attractive,” he said, referring to computerized illustrations of likely development.

Capital Shopping Center was built in the early 1960s, when car-centric shopping plazas were becoming common. It replaced the Concord Railroad Depot, a handsome brick building that had fallen into disrepair after passenger rail stopped coming to the city and was torn down.

With its plain facade and large featureless parking lot, plus the fact that it shows its backside to tens of thousands of passing cars on I-93, the plaza has never been a high point in the city’s image. In recent years it appears to have struggled with changing shopping habits that have taken a toll of many malls and shopping centers, even before COVID-19 upended everything.

“I imagine if (the owners) had their druthers they would start from scratch at that site and do something different,” said Baia.

The plaza’s Market Basket is the major grocery store for the downtown, along with the Concord Food Co-op.

(David Brooks can be reached at 369-3313 or dbrooks@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @GraniteGeek.)]]>