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The site of the former head office of Nashua Corp. is about to undergo an expansion project aimed at bringing even more life to the Merrimack property.
This week, the planning board approved a site plan that will add both warehouse and manufacturing space to the plot at 57-59 Daniel Webster Highway.
“This is speculative construction, in other words, we don’t have a tenant yet,†said Steve Glowacki of RJO’Connell and Associates Inc., the civil engineering firm working on the project.
Calare Properties had previously acquired the former property from Nashua Corp. for about $ 17.5 million.
The expansion includes a new stand-alone manufacturing building of approximately 100,700 square feet. A 66,000 square foot addition to an existing building on the property will be used as a warehouse, according to Glowacki.
According to attorney Tom Hildreth of the McClain Middleton law firm, who represents the owner, the main site along the Daniel Webster Freeway had “almost put on hold” at one point, but is now almost entirely occupied by tenants; Law Logistics currently occupies a significant portion of the property.
The new manufacturing building will bolster those efforts to bring even more activity to the plot, Hildreth said.
He said the project would reconfigure the existing parking lot in the center of the site to allow more than 500 parking spaces. Loading docks will also be incorporated into the layout, along with improvements to stormwater and drainage structures, Glowacki said.
Some have expressed concerns about the impact the expansion could have on traffic.
“My concern is traffic,” said neighbor Bill Fallon of Merrimack Drive, a retired truck driver.
Fallon said there was previously a traffic light along the Daniel Webster Freeway at the intersection of this development. However, it was removed by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation about a decade ago.
“The problems we have now are going to be exacerbated by this,†Fallon said of the traffic jams around. “We have a major problem with this whole stretch. “
Barbara Healey, city councilor and member of the planning council, said traffic along the Daniel Webster Freeway is always underestimated.
Glowacki said a traffic study had been completed as part of the planning board process and that an amended road access permit would be requested, along with a land modification permit.
Nashua Corp. had used some of the buildings on the property until the fall of 2016, when it officially closed its Merrimack operations.
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