People and Property: Real Estate and Construction News From Around NH

Chinburg earns national Energy Star awards

Newmarket-based development, construction and property management firm Chinburg, has earned a national award at the highest level of the Environmental Protection Agency’s standard of recognition.

The company is one of only 12 new home builders recognized at the top Sustained Excellence Energy Star award tier for 2023 – the only builder to earn the designation in New England.  The company earned its first national Energy Star Partner of the Year Award in 2016 and has continued to earn the rankings ever since when it comes to its home performance standards.

“Our commitment to the Energy Star program has been a key feature of our green building commitment. We know that we are building in a responsible manner that impacts the long-term environmental integrity of our state as well as making a difference in the quality of the homes and the costs of energy to those homes. It just makes sense, feel great, and is the right thing to do,” said Jennifer Chinburg.

Savard steps down as Executive Director of NH Coalition to End Homelessness

Ann Marie French

Stephanie Savard, executive director of the NH Coalition to End Homelessness, has stepped down from the job she has held for the past two and a half years.

In her place, Annmarie French, former executive director of the NH Fiscal Policy Institute, has been named interim director of the coalition.

Savard made the announcement Monday via an email message to partners and supporters. In it, Savard – a longtime executive at Families in Transition – said she has “accepted a new career opportunity.”

The coalition board said it appointed French to provide continuity of leadership and guide the organization through this time of transition.

Community Loan Fund exec national Housing Supply Accelerator panel

Sarah Marchant, chief of staff and vice president of ROC-NH at the NH Community Loan Fund, has been named to the inaugural steering committee of the Housing Supply Accelerator, a national campaign to improve local capacity, identify critical solutions, and speed reforms that enable communities and developers to work together to produce, preserve, and provide a diverse range of quality housing.

Sarah Marchant

Marchant, of Brookline, has nearly two decades of community development experience and involvement with not only the American Planning Association, NH Hampshire Planners Association and NH Housing Finance Authority.

Construction begins at former Rochester furniture store site

The site of the former Hoffman’s Furniture store in downtown Rochester will soon see new life as a six-story mixed-use building with financing support led by Meredith Village Savings Bank.

The former furniture store had sat vacant for over 30 years before being demolished in August 2022 after developers Paul and Greg Grant of Lilac City Development purchased the site at 44-55 N. Main St. in November 2021.

Once complete, the building will feature nine one-bedroom and 36 two-bedroom apartments, nine interior garage parking spaces, as well as a 2,300-square-foot commercial space on the lower level.

The building was designed by Market Square Architects of Portsmouth with construction led by Groen Construction of Rochester. The City of Rochester also granted Lilac City Development the community revitalization tax relief incentive, which encourages investment in rehabilitation of under-utilized building in eligible areas. Construction is anticipated to be completed in June 2024.

Advanced manufacturing plant at Pease gets Portsmouth board approval

An advanced manufacturing facility planned at the Pease International Tradeport has gained the zoning variance it needed to move forward.

Development partners The Kane Company and Procon, operating as Aviation Avenue Group LLC, want to build the 209,000-square-foot plant on a 11.4-acre site off New Hampshire Avenue.

The proposed facility will feature robotized assembly teams that are typically made up of fewer but higher-paid employees, the developers say, but they have yet to name the company that would be operating in the building.

The city’s Zoning Board of Adjustment voted unanimously last week to grant the developers a variance “for a rear yard setback of 28.4 feet, where 50 feet is required.”

The project has already received conceptual approval from the Pease Development Authority’s Board of Directors.

Concord Group moves HQ to Bedford

After 95 years in Concord, Concord Group Insurance has moved its headquarters from North State Street in the Capital City to Bedford, seeking more access to workers and a more modern building.

The Concord Monitor reported, though, that the company will maintain several offices in and around Concord, including about 80 workers at Granite Place in Concord.

Concord Group, which has been based in Concord since starting as a farm insurance company in 1928, is a major insurance carrier for independent agents in the four northern New England states. It is expanding its presence in Massachusetts, the company said, and moving the headquarters to Bedford is designed to get closer to that area and draw more employees.

The company’s new headquarters is at 35B Constitution Drive, in an industrial park off Route 101 in north Bedford, not far from the Everett Turnpike.

Runway renovation set to begin at Manchester airport

Manchester-Boston Regional Airport will begin a multi-phase runway reconstruction project on April 1 that will provide “much-needed enhancements to our runways, especially as our primary runway nears the end of its 20-year useful life,” according to Airport Director Ted Kitchens.

The project, scheduled to be completed by mid-September, includes rehabilitation of the primary runway, 17-35, and the partial rehabilitation of the crosswind runway, 6-24.

Kitchen said the ongoing work could cause changes in air traffic patterns.

The $17.3 million project is being overseen by Pike Industries based of Belmont. The FAA is covering 90 percent of the cost of the project, with the state and Airport each chipping in 5 percent.

NH congressional delegation hails $500k for Boire Field

The four members of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation – U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas – are praising the award of nearly $512,000 to Boire Field Airport in Nashua to help with reconstruction of 11,277 square yards of the existing apron pavement that has reached the end of its useful life.

The funds were made available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – the bipartisan infrastructure bill, that was signed into law in 2021.