Mass. builder leaves Hudson for Nashua open-air mall

By RYAN J. HALLIDAY, Telegraph Staff

Published: Thursday, May. 17, 2007

Green Meadow Golf Club, the proposed site of the massive Riverplace development, is on the left. The former Hampshire Chemical plant and the site of the
proposed Nashua Landing lifestyle center is on the right. W/S Development has withdrawn its plans to develop Riverplace and is teaming up with New England Development Inc. and Packard Development to develop Nashua Landing.

File photo by Norstar Helicopter
Green Meadow Golf Club, the proposed site of the massive Riverplace development, is on the left. The former Hampshire Chemical plant and the site of the proposed Nashua Landing lifestyle center is on the right. W/S Development has withdrawn its plans to develop Riverplace and is teaming up with New England Development Inc. and Packard Development to develop Nashua Landing.

HUDSON – W/S Development has scrapped its plans for a massive open-air shopping center on the Green Meadow Golf Club and is instead partnering with another Massachusetts developer to build a smaller lifestyle center across the river in Nashua.

W/S Development Inc. announced Tuesday it officially withdrew all its permit applications with the town of Hudson for the construction of Riverplace, an outdoor shopping bazaar that would have been the largest retail center in New England.

W/S has instead opted to enter into a joint venture with New England Development Inc. and its affiliate, Packard Development, to help build Nashua Landing, another proposed lifestyle center across the Merrimack River from Green Meadow at the former Hampshire Chemical site.

“W/S is excited to be partners with New England Development and Packard, and we’re looking forward to leasing and building the first lifestyle center in New Hampshire,” said W/S Project Manager Edward Vydra.

The retail developers have also terminated their agreement to purchase Green Meadow, meaning the future of the sprawling 375-acre golf course overlooking the Merrimack River is up in the air.

Green Meadow’s owners still intend to build on that site and are scheduled to meet with the planning board Wednesday to discuss their plans to develop the property.

What gave way

Hot competition for exclusive retail tenants, combined with the lengthy time frame for Riverplace to obtain the permits to start the project, apparently convinced W/S it was time to cut their loses and join Nashua Landing.

“Retail is a time-sensitive business,” said Vydra. “We just couldn’t guarantee an acceptable time frame for our core tenants.”

W/S developers first began pitching their plans for a massive lifestyle center at Green Meadow in 2005. But the project has since been mired in a prolonged local, state and federal permitting process that could have taken years to resolve.

The official review of the project never really got off the ground at the local level. The developers did not file definitive plans with the town until January 2007, but those plans were returned to W/S because they had not first obtained a wetlands exemption from the zoning board of adjustments.

In the meantime, the market for lifestyle centers, which are the latest trend in retail development, has become more competitive in the Nashua area.

Last week, city officials granted Nashua Landing a wetlands exemption for its proposed lifestyle center. And the Pheasant Lane Mall has announced plans to tear down the former Macy’s building and construct an open-air shopping center on its site.

The Riverplace project would have required the construction of a Sagamore Bridge interchange, and improvements to Routes 111 and 102 would likely have been under review for years.

By the time construction in Hudson got under way, Nashua Landing and Pheasant Lane would already be open for business, giving them a significant edge in signing many of the high-end restaurants and nationally-known retailers Riverplace had coveted.

Vydra said the introduction of the Nashua Landing project persuaded W/S that both projects could not successfully co-exist.

“The Nashua market will really only allow for one lifestyle center, and we both thought that Nashua Landing was that project,” said Vydra.

Vydra said he was not at liberty to disclose the terms of the partnership between W/S and New England Development.

Partners again

Debbie Black, vice president of marketing and public affairs for New England Development Inc. of Newton, confirmed her company had entered a joint venture with W/S but would not reveal the terms of the partnership.

Black said her firm has a “long-term relationship” with W/S, having collaborated on the development of several malls in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the past.

“We thought that rather than have two competing developments, it made more sense for us to work together,” she said.

Developers hope to complete the permitting process for Nashua Landing by the end of this summer, with an eye towards opening for business sometime in 2009, said Black.

If approved, Nashua Landing, at the former 45-acre site of Hampshire Chemical on East Spit Brook Road and just off Daniel Webster Highway, will be a 450,000-square-foot outdoor shopping plaza, which would be only a faction of the size of Riverplace.

Plans for a commuter rail station there have been abandoned.

At full build-out, Riverplace would have been more than twice the retail space of New Hampshire’s largest mall, The Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester.

Plans also called for a movie theater, a hotel and conference center, a river walk, big-box retailers like Barnes & Noble, 600 units of elderly housing, parks and office buildings, and an outdoor ampatheater. The first phase would have been 1.1 million square feet of shops and restaurants.

Lifestyle centers are billed as open-air malls with pedestrian-friendly streetscapes, a variety of restaurants and upscale retailers. While many of the same stores are found in traditional enclosed malls, the ambience of a lifestyle center more closely resembles a downtown, with wide sidewalks and elaborate landscaping, in a layout meant to encourage window shopping, outdoor dining and strolling.

Some argued Riverplace would have broadened Hudson’s residential and commercial tax base and bring in much-needed revenue to the town’s coffers.

Others opposed the project because of the impact it would have had on traffic and other quality of life issues.

The developers claimed their project, once fully constructed, would have generated $5.6 million in annual net revenue for the town, as well as more than $12 million in one-time fees.

Town Planner John Cashell said Nashua Landing, while much smaller in scale, would still have “a lot of the same traffic impacts” as Riverplace would have had on Routes 111 and 102 in Hudson.

“Will there be an increase in traffic? Most likely,” said Cashell.

Cashell agreed that Hudson might suffer some of the negative impacts of the new lifestyle center, while not reaping any of the rewards in additional tax revenue.

“That’s the reality,” he said. “People have to recognize that there’s a revenue benefit from allowing a certain amount of commercial development.”

Ryan J. Halliday can be reached at 594-5860 or rhalliday@nashuatelegraph.com.