July 10, 2008

Don’t forget South Elm St.
Downtown Manchester officially just got bigger
By Sean Frederick news@hippopress.com

In downtown Manchester, boundaries have been redrawn to encourage the long-envisioned redevelopment of the city’s South End, the area upon which civic and business leaders are staking much of the Queen City’s future growth.

Last month, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen ushered in the first formal expansion of the downtown’s boundaries in more than a decade. The southernmost reaches of the Central Business Services District, within which commercial properties are assessed a sur-tax in exchange for enhanced services, was extended by nearly a mile to Queen City Avenue.

Services such as graffiti removal, streetscape maintenance, and marketing promotions are administered by Intown Manchester and are set to begin within the expanded area this month. As a result, about an additional 75 downtown commercial property owners will first see a related sur-tax on their November tax bills — something that’s not always a welcome sight.

Keith Murphy, owner of Murphy’s Taproom, was once skeptical of the tax prior to opening his restaurant within the CBSD. “It was an issue to have my business within the [district]” initially, Murphy said.

But, after more than a year of operation at the intersection of Auburn and Elm streets on the now-former boundary of the CBSD, Murphy said he’s found Intown’s services “very worthwhile.”

Just how much those services, coming to the South End for the first time, will be available may be tightly limited.

Though the city has re-drawn the CBSD, efforts to increase Intown Manchester’s funding in a commensurate fashion stalled. “The aldermen expanded the district, but didn’t expand our budget,” said Stephanie Lewry, executive director of Intown Manchester.

Though her organization’s flatlined budget and expanded territory will likely result in lower surtaxes for those paying into the system, the situation presents serious challenges, as Intown will be expected to provide its program of services to new areas while maintaining its current level of upkeep and maintenance in the city’s central downtown.

Lewry said she is “struggling with this issue” but refuses to cede any progress that Intown has fostered within old bounds of the district. “I am not going to stretch myself to the point where we’re going to give up what we’ve accomplished here,” Lewry said.

Keith Murphy welcomes the CBSD’s new expansion, situated immediately south of his business. The area represents the “single greatest opportunity for development in Manchester,” he said.

One landmark development is already afoot, as the swath of land is home to the forthcoming Elliot at River’s Edge project, situated off Queen City Avenue, the new southern boundary of the CBSD. The ambulatory care facility and its attendant parcels of residential and retail properties are expected to amount to approximately $100 million of redevelopment on a property still dominated by the hulking structures of the Jac-Pac Foods meatpacking plant, which shuttered in 2004.

The project has civic and business leaders alike bursting with optimism. “I’m extremely excited,” Murphy said. “I view it as the anchor of the new downtown boundary.”

Lewry envisions the project “doing for South Elm what the Verizon did in terms of focusing where the pendulum swings for development.”

Dick Anagnost, developer of the Elliot project and also president of Intown Manchester, says it’s a watershed moment for an area that’s long been overlooked. In the past, Anagnost said, “the South End has been treated like the redheaded stepchild of downtown.”

He too predicts the project will “anchor the South End,” an area he says is already ripe for inclusion as a vital part of Manchester’s urban center. For example, Anagnost points to Queen City Avenue as a more heavily trafficked gateway to downtown Manchester than its northern counterpart, the Amoskeag Bridge.

That’s a trend likely to continue given the residential and retail elements Anagnost plans to construct alongside the health-care campus. “Mixed-use is the most important type of development” for the city, Anagnost said. “People can work, shop, and live in the same area, it’s like the circle of life.”

While hopes are high on Queen City Avenue, questions remain about what will happen between the South End’s new “anchor” and the former boundaries of the CBSD just south of the Verizon Wireless Arena.

Bustling businesses, gaslit streets, and throngs of shoppers and diners are what Manchester’s Economic Development office envisions as future hallmarks of the South End, as outlined in the city’s Master Plan. But areas with such quaint monikers as the “Gaslight District” and the “Warehouse District” are still far from being realized, according to Murphy.

“Things are not that built up” within the area, he said, though he is “extremely excited” about the forthcoming Elliot development and the projects that could piggyback upon its success. Ultimately, he said, it will take similarly-minded businesspeople to effect such dramatic change in the area. “Planners don’t drive economic growth. Businesses do,” Murphy said.

Jay Minkarah, Manchester’s Director of Economic Development, is both candid about the area’s current state and optimistic about its future. Minkarah calls the land south of the Verizon a “transitional area,” a mix of properties destined for “use at a higher intensity.”

Much of the progression is natural, Minkarah says. “I think you’ll see the area taking on a more commercial character,” he said. “Increasingly warehouse and distribution businesses tend to want to locate in areas with more highway access and proximity to the airport.”

That’s not to say city government is leaving the future of the area to chance, as Minkarah says there’s room for the city to play an active role. He pointed to the city’s stewardship of the former Jac-Pac property (purchased from Tyson Foods and later sold to Anagnost) and the city’s “direct investment” in the construction of the riverfront baseball stadium as examples of how the city can take “overt action” in spurring catalysts for abutting development.

Also in the planning stages are major streetscape improvements for south Elm Street, such as angled parking, sidewalk enhancements, aesthetic lighting, and perhaps even submerged utility lines, which Minkarah said would aim “to create an atmosphere that is more inviting, convenient, and more pedestrian-friendly,” and perhaps most significantly, match “the look and feel” of the current core of downtown.

In the more immediate future, Lewry is eager to see what redevelopment will occur in the wake of the Elliot project, noting downtown Manchester’s continuing renaissance through the revitalization of older buildings. Lewry says that trend is due in no small part to the actions of a developer who once tackled more modest ventures than he does today.

It was, after all, Anagnost who redeveloped the Chase Building, which now houses Margarita’s Restaurant, into one of downtown Manchester’s most recognizable buildings at the street level.

“That building had been vacant for 10 years; once [he] did it, he became hugely successful and was willing to do more,” Lewry said. “People began to learn from his success.”

Or, as Keith Murphy says, “Planners are great for creating pretty pictures and maps, but it takes business owners willing to put money on the line and risk it.”