Shiny new city
Can cleaning up neighborhoods give Manchester a new glow?
By Lisa Brown lbrown@hippopress.com

Twenty-eight years ago this month, Richard Rivard put up his shingle on Kelley Street and opened his shoe repair business.

Today his door is still open, and he plans to keep it that way. The people who live in the Kelley Street and Rimmon Heights areas have been good to him.

“It used to be better; now [I see a] change, it’s a little bit rough, but still not bad at all,” said Richard Rivard of Rivtin’s Shoe Service.

Across from Rivtin’s on Kelley Street is where you’ll find Jimmy and Ann Tentas. For 20 years, they have been flipping pizzas at Jimmy’s House of Pizza and watching customers grow up.

“It’s been generation to generation. When we first opened parents brought their kids. Now kids grow up, they bring their girlfriends or wives, and now they bring their own kids,” said Jimmy Tentas, owner of Jimmy’s House of Pizza.

“We know them by name and where they live. It’s not just a small business, it’s like, they [customers] don’t see us as owners, but more as part of the family,” Tentas said.

It is people like Rivard and Tentas who keep neighborhoods together. And that’s what people like Robert MacKenzie, director fo the city’s planning department, wants to nourish.

“We are in the process of finalizing a city plan,” MacKenzie said. From a partnership with highway, parks, police and other city departments, along with area nonprofits, a comprehensive plan to showcase Manchester’s unique neighborhoods is underway.

“We’ve had a downtown plan, a parks plan and a citywide master plan. The planning board’s focus is on the master plan, and we see it as a series of strategies. A neighborhood-to-neighborhood plan becomes part of the fabric of a city plan,” MacKenzie said.

The not-downtown town
While most of the focus has been on the downtown area, MacKenzie says the time has come for a slight shift.

Goals that were set in the early 1990s from a downtown study have for the most part been achieved; Manchester created a downtown district and organization to oversee improvements (InTown Manchester). An arena was built. A baseball stadium built. A facade improvement program was implemented along Elm Street. The Millyard was rezoned from industrial to business and today Manchester, as a city, is re-emerging.

“So now we are at a crossroad. We as planners view the entire city, so we have started a neighborhood plan. We see the part of our future in the neighborhoods. If you have some great neighborhoods, where it’s fun to move to and live in, that is as important as a thriving downtown,” MacKenzie said.

Neighborhood Initiatives is a program being spearheaded by the Manchester planning department. The money for this project, which will eventually tackle more than 20 different parts of Manchester, will come in part from the city’s CIP budget (money set aside for use on improvement to things like roads and buildings) and funds that have been set aside this year specifically to address the neighborhood revitalization project. For each project and each department, there are a variety of funding sources to tap into including federal, state, private and HUD, depending on what work is being done. St. Mary’s Bank is chipping in with the first phase of Neighborhood Iniatives by putting aside $12 million for low interest loans for businesses and residential properties in Rimmon Heights. The bank has also set up a resource venter at 20 McGregor St., Manchester, to help explain the project and how their loans can help those looking to benefit from the neighborhood improvement, according to Liz Stodolski, marking director at the bank.

Because of the scope of Neighborhood Initiatives and because this will be an ongoing project over several decades, there is no guarantee that at some point the planning department won’t hit a few snags and roadblocks, whether it be from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen or from others.

“The funds have been approved for the Kelley Street project, but each neighborhood plan will require approval from the Board of Mayor and Aldermen because it will involve capital improvement funds,” said Mark Laliberte, public Policy Advisor to the Mayor.

Welcome to the West Side
Rimmon Heights in the Kelley Street area will be the first neighborhood to see new improvements. The Kelley Street area is bounded by the Merrimack River to the east, the Piscataquog River to the west, Dexter Street to the north and Putnam Street to the south. Plans call for a new streetscape along Kelley Street, which will make the street safer to cross and more attractive to walk along. Other changes include better lighting, trash barrels, sidewalk design and the removal of unnecessary street and regulatory signs.

“They should put better lights on the street,” said Richard Rivard. “That would be a good improvement then. They have some kind of bulb, they don’t have to change the light, but could change the bulbs, that would be brighter.”

Other improvements include putting up arches to key entryways into the neighborhood, creating the sense that one is entering a distinct and special neighborhood. The city plans to continue the green streets program and plant trees where needed. Businesses and property owners will also be encouraged to add green to their spaces.

Like the Elm Street facade improvement, businesses in the Rimmon Heights will be eligible for similar facade improvement programs. A business that wants to spruce up its appearance will be reimbursed for half the cost up to a certain amount through a grant program.

One business owner, Scott Briggs, is wasting no time improving his property. Briggs owns 171-175 Kelley St. It’s two commercial store fronts and a residential building. Briggs’ plan calls for making the first floors commercial and the top two floors residential.

“We are going to be creating a courtyard in front of the building with granite posts, wrought iron and a cobblestone courtyard,” Briggs said. “Our plan is to bring the synergy back. We want to be in line with what the city is calling for under the Kelley Street improvement.”

Already, Briggs is looking at retailers for the commercial space and hopes to bring in shops that play off each other. Encouraging new businesses into the area along Kelley and Amory has several advantages: it provides access to goods and services for the neighbors, provides a central gathering spot for the neighborhood and provides jobs and growth.

“We want to help businesses expand, as well as to be able to offer different loan programs to people who want to be homeowners,” MacKenzie said. “We have to attack the issue of security, to be able to locate a police substation and make the area more attractive.”

Further spiffying
Plans also include improving the neighborhood parks. A multi-purpose field is planned for the “sandpit” area below the hill from Congress Street and adjacent to the West Side Ice Arena.

On the West Side, the trail system along the Piscataquog River will eventually cross the old trestle bridge north to Goffstown and connect south to the Hands Across the Merrimack Bridge and the Riverwalk.

A concentrated effort to improve neighborhoods throughout Manchester makes sense to Deb Benton, who has owned a home for 28 years in the Wolf Park section of West Manchester. Benton, who raised three children, says even though her neighborhood isn’t what it used to be, it is still a great place to live

“It’s an old neighborhood, most of the kids ended up working part time at Blake’s after school, then Sully’s, then Hannaford,” Benton said. “Everybody knows everybody, or at least tries to.”

It is that kind of ownership and sense of pride city planners want all residents to feel about where they live.

“When you have pride and someone throws something out in front of your house, you find out who’s doing it and tell them to stop. The city can’t do it all, but with neighborhoods coming back and people [being] proud of their neighborhoods, we can do it, it takes both,” MacKenzie said.

If the Kelley Street project goes as planned, the next neighborhood designated for revitalization will be the Hallsville area, which includes Stevens Park and Elliot Hospital in the central part of the city. Already, planning department officials have held meetings with some residents and organizations in that area.

Beyond neighborhood to neighborhood
The neighborhood-to-neighborhood project is a long-term project that could take up to 100 years to complete, MacKenzie said. Rimmon Heights is only a start. Citywide, however, efforts are underway to make Manchester more attractive. Next week, Mayor Frank Guinta and the Manchester Chamber of Commerce Downtown Committee will unveil the “Walkable Neighborhoods” beautification program. The program will allow businesses, civic groups, schools and other organizations to adopt neglected pieces of city land and beautify them through landscaping or litter cleanup. The program will exist as a partnership between the Chamber’s Downtown Committee and the Highway Department.

In addition, recent attention on property owners and out-of-town landlords whose properties have trash piled on sidewalks and streets has prompted the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to approve hiking fines on offenders. If higher fines don’t result in a sea change, some aldermen have suggested asking state lawmakers to enact legislation that would allow the city to take control of property if fines go unpaid.

Not so fast
While the planning department intends to focus on the neighborhoods, some residents say not so fast.

Art 3 Gallery (44 W. Brook St., just off Elm Street) owner Lee Forgosh thinks downtown still has a way to go.

“I think it’s going to be amazing. I think we are in the process of reinventing the wheel maybe, the Millyard and what Brady Sullivan has done, and the more people who move in to the area, the more you’ll need to have businesses for them [to shop] and that’s not a focus of downtown yet,” Forgosh said.

Two new downtown luxury residential properties aren’t yet completely filled and Elm Street still has empty storefronts.

The Residences at Manchester Place on the corner of Elm and Bridge streets is 80 percent occupied, according to officials at The Residences. Further south, next to the new Fisher Cats stadium and adjacent Hilton Garden Inn, is RiverWalk Place, a luxury condominium project. The first phase of the project finished in the fall and already 15 units have been sold.

“The idea was to create luxury condominiums in downtown Manchester because we felt a need for it. With the revitalization of the city, there were more people that wanted to move to the city area to be closer to restaurants, culture and the arts that Manchester offers,” said Patty Harpin, of Goves Group Real Estate, the firm marketing the RiverWalk project.

Priced at $299,000, the condominiums are meant to attract empty-nesters looking to get rid of their bigger homes in nearby communities.

“We need people to believe in Manchester the way we believe in Manchester. We’ve had a lot of visitors through our development and most are thrilled with what they see and what is happening in the city,” Harpin said. “But, some [people] that are caught up in the old Manchester mentality — what this used to be — they don’t necessarily appreciate what Manchester is offering people now.”

Southern exposure
Whereas Granite Street was once considered downtown’s southern boundary, it is no longer.

Today, the city begins at the Queen City Bridge, and that adds another prong to the future of the city.

The former Jac Pac meat-packing plant is now prime real estate for creating a new, southern gateway to the city, in part because it straddles the Merrimack River.

The meat-packing plant, which employed more than 500 people, closed in 2004, leaving behind hundreds of workers without jobs and a run-down site. The city eventually took over the property and put out bids for its development. Only one developer stepped up to the plate.

Local developer Dick Anagnost has submitted plans to create an office, retail and residential park. Under his plan, the property along the river would stay undeveloped and be given back to the city for a park area. The 17-acre development plan will be a “green” plan, one that meets new energy-saving and environmentally sound recommendations.

It calls for 100,000 square feet of office space, up to 20,000 square feet for retail and approximately 32 to 50 apartments. Anagnost, who owns several businesses and has worked on the redevelopment of properties all across the city, said he wants the apartments to be affordable.

“I have a lot of employees and know what they go to, so affordable housing is near and dear to my heart,” Anagnost said. The big unknown still, is what businesses might the complex attract. Anagnost says he won’t know that until he takes possession of the site.

“It’s like the cart before the horse. Give me control of the site, and let me do due diligence and find out what will prosper,” Anagnost said.

MacKenzie says the Anagnost plan is being reviewed by a committee.

“The city’s vision was to create work. One of the goals after Jac Pac left was to attract a business [to that site] that will be sustaining, businesses that are going to be here to stay. If the tenants to the Jac Pac proposal are solid, it will be a good thing, but if not, maybe we will put it back out for proposal,” MacKenzie said.

The future, maybe
Plans to make the city feel shiny and clean aren’t just focused on neighborhood revitalization.

A recent $1.8 million federal grant for lead abatement will improve many of the city’s multi-family properties. In addition, plans are being finalized to begin work on a new pedestrian bridge, “Hands across the Merrimack,” which will not only be a connector for residents on both sides of the river, but will also be a destination of sorts. Initial plans call for a piece of artwork near the east entrance to the bridge that will be large enough to see from the highway.

Even as the city has turned its attention to the neighborhoods, other plans are afoot to keep the city moving forward economically. Glen Ohlund, development coordinator for Manchester’s economic development office said that while efforts are ongoing to attract new business to Manchester, it’s important to take care of those we already have.

“We need to cultivate and grow existing businesses regardless of their size, if they have five or 500 employees,” Ohlund said. “These are the ones firmly in the community doing the hiring of local folks and working with them is an important part of what we do.”

Part of focusing on existing businesses includes those that are in Manchester’s neighborhoods.

Ohlund says developing “niche” neighborhoods may be key to bringing younger people to the area.

“People will select neighborhoods if there is a corner store, or a funky restaurant or breakfast nook where they can eat a couple of times a week. If there’s a cobbler, a dry cleaner ... more and more amenities are part of the decision that people go through when they decide to locate,” Ohlund said.
There has been no full-time director for economic development in Manchester since Paul Borek resigned in October (MacKenzie has been acting director in the meantime). The city is currently conducting a search for a new director and six finalists have been interviewed by members of the mayor’s search committee. The committee is expected to make a recommendation to Mayor Frank Guinta in the next couple of days. Guinta will review the recommendation and hopes to announce his choice for new director of economic development during the March 6 Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting. The new director will be expected to help the city attract and retain high-paying, long-term jobs.

And then there’s the oft-dreamed-of train to Boston. Gov. John Lynch has made rail transportation a priority, encouraging hopes that the much-discussed connection to the south will finally materialize.

“Talk about the plan for the next 20 years — railroad has got to be in there,” MacKenzie said.

The train and its ability to transport Bostonians to Manchester’s cheaper real estate and connect Manchester residents (as well as folks in Nashua and towns surrounding the Queen City) to the cultural advantages of a big city could create a Manchester where more young people will stay to find jobs and raise families. Just think what that will do to neighborhood identity.