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

Developers change plans at Pease from advanced manufacturing to distribution facility

A major development team is dropping its plan to build an advanced manufacturing plant at Pease International Tradeport and wants to move forward instead with a “supply chain management facility” there, the Portsmouth Herald reported.

Aviation Avenue Group LLC is proposing to work with Fidelitone, “a company that represents a nationwide home merchandising company,” to create a warehouse and distribution facility at 100 New Hampshire Ave. site, according to Michael Mates, the Pease Development Authority’s director of engineering.

AAG is proposing a 102,000-plus-square-foot warehouse on the 10.95-acre parcel, Mates said.

Aviation Avenue Group LLC previously received concept approval from the PDA’s Board of Directors for the advanced manufacturing plant proposed for 100 New Hampshire Ave., along with recommended approvals from city land-use boards.

“Our development team committed significant resources toward further site investigation and numerous design and financial proposals to potential end users,” Stebbins said in a letter to Paul Brean, the executive director of the Pease Development Authority. “Unfortunately the market has shifted drastically over the last six months, and factors out of our control … have led to the diminishing of requirements from advanced manufacturing end users.”

Stebbins is the managing director of Procon Inc., which is working on the development with The Kane Company as Aviation Avenue Group LLC.

Our Place near deal for home for adults with developmental disabilities

If all goes according to plan, a former commercial building in Dover will be converted to create independent living apartments for up to 12 adults with developmental disabilities.

According to Foster’s Daily Democrat, Laurie McIntosh, executive director of the nonprofit organization Our Place, said it has reached a verbal agreement with the owner of the Dover property.

McIntosh said the property is near a bus route and “there are sidewalks going into downtown Dover.”

She said Our Place, which was founded in 2019, will need to prove to a bank it can buy the property and that it has sufficient funds to renovate it. McIntosh said in order to get a commercial loan to purchase the property and do the necessary renovations and additions, $400,000 is needed in a building account.

McIntosh told Foster’s, “We already have 60 families on an “interested” list,” although the organization is not ready to begin making any selections.

Eligible residents will be selected through fair housing requirements. They will need to be disabled, recipients of Social Security or other aid, and capable of independent living.

Our Place was created by several families who saw a severe shortage of few places where adults with disabilities could find supportive housing and live with or near their peers.

Bishop named senior vice president at Mascoma Community Development

Ryan Bishop

Mascoma Bank has announced that Ryan Bishop has been hired as senior vice president and managing director of its wholly owned subsidiary, Mascoma Community Development.

Bishop will lead the community lending team in originating and managing projects funded through various forms of tax credit financing, including New Markets Tax Credits, Historic Tax Credits and Low- Income Housing Tax Credits. He has over 20 years’ commercial banking and real estate experience, including responsibilities in credit administration, commercial property sales and leasing, risk, lending, and asset quality and portfolio management.

He succeeds Dick Jennings, who helped create a full-service community development lending group for Mascoma Bank and has transitioned to retirement after 26 years with the organization.

Winchester receives $1.2m grant to clean up former tannery

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded a nearly $1.18 million grant to the town of Winchester to be used in the ongoing cleanup of the former A.C. Lawrence Tannery in a bid to convert the brownfield site into one that could be used for solar power sourcing,

Winchester is among 262 communities in the country that have been selected for fiscal year 2023 to receive 267 MARC grants worth $215 million in total. The grant helps redevelop brownfield sites by cleaning them to form “sustainable and environmentally just places,” according to the EPA website.

The 7.2 acre A.C. Lawrence Tannery facility began operating in 1908 and was acquired by the town in 1993 through a tax foreclosure. There are currently no buildings on the property.

Nobis Group Awards 2023 STEM scholarships

Nobis Group, a Concord-based engineering and environmental consulting firm recently awarded scholarships to two 2023 high school graduates.

Now in its fifth year, the Nobis scholarship is awarded to graduating high school seniors in New Hampshire and Massachusetts who have demonstrated an interest and are pursuing further education in STEM fields at a college, university, or trade school.

Keith St. Sauveur

This year’s recipients are Massachusetts student Danny Tran of Lawrence High School and New Hampshire student Calla Kutschke of Nashua High School North. Tran and Kutschke are both at the top of their graduating classes and are pursuing higher education in the fields of Environmental Science and Environmental Engineering, respectively.

DEW Construction adds two to staff

Dew Construction has announced two recent hirings.

Keith St. Sauveur, who has nearly 34 years of construction estimating experience, joins the Williston, Vt., preconstruction and estimating team as a senior estimator.

Mike Tremblay, who has over 30 years of industry experience, will be the senior

Mike Tremblay

superintendent overseeing the campus revitalization project at Crotched Mountain School in Greenfield, NH.

OVP Management donates land to MWV Trails Association

OVP Management Inc., developer of the Settlers Green retail development in North Conway, has donated nearly an acre of commercial land on Hemlock Lane in North Conway to the Mt. Washington Valley Trails Association for it to be incorporated into the master project plan for the North Conway Recreation Path.

Over a decade in the making, the 2.9-mile North Conway Recreation Path Phase 1 is set to open in early summer. The multi-use trail will serve as a draw for the region, providing a place for outdoors lovers of all ages and abilities to walk, jog, bike and more.

OVP Management Inc. is the developer of over 500,000 square feet of commercial properties in North Conway, including Settlers Green, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.

Barrington Depot sold

The sale of the 528 and 532 Calef Highway in Barrington, which consists of 4.29 acres with three buildings totaling 5,514 square feet. Andrew Ward of Colliers’ Portsmouth office, represented the seller, TRS Knight Family Rev Trust, and Deane Navaroli of William & Reeves Commercial Real Estate represented the buyer, Desaulniers Commons LLC, in the sale.

The property is the sight of Knight’s Garage and The Barrington Depot shopping center, which is anchored by Aroma Joe’s.

The Knight’s Garage site will continue to operate as an auto service shop, but will be known as MD Motors.

Lakes Region contractor arrested in Miami

A Lakes Region contractor is back in the United States after allegedly fleeing to Central America while under investigation by the New Hampshire attorney general.

Investigators said Gerard Healey allegedly took money from customers without actually doing any work.

The attorney general’s office said it received information last month that Healey was making a return to the United States. He was arrested in Florida and returned to New Hampshire to face dozens of charges in Belknap County.

The attorney general’s office said it began investigating Healey in 2016 after it received several complaints from customers who said they signed contracts with him for home improvement projects and paid deposits, but then said Healey never actually did the work.

The Belknap Superior Court prohibited Healey from accepting any more deposits for the next 10 years. But the attorney general’s office said Healey allegedly continued to take deposits and took tens of thousands of dollars between 2021 and 2022.