A lot to talk about: 15 years after devastating fire, neighbors wonder what can be done about empty lot

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Noah Oullett and Nikelle Difusco scaled
Noah Oullett and Nikelle Difusco in front of their apartment next to the vacant lot. Photo/ Eric Zulaski

MANCHESTER, NH – In the summer, the vacant lot on the corner of Chestnut and Pearl streets overflows with biodiversity. Bees bounce from clusters of purple and white clover to pink milkweed blossoms.  Starlings gather on the branches of small bushes then disperse to nearby electric lines or trees shaded by the brick apartment building next door. The abundant flora hides tossed cigarette packs, gum wrappers and Dunkin Donuts cups that gather in the lot. Discarded cardboard boxes and a dead pine tree, a ghost from a Christmas past, have made the space a final resting place. 

“It’s nice to have a little grass, but it’s gross in the winter,” says Catherine Booker, 38, who lives in the apartment next to the lot.

Until a devastating 2008 fire, the now-empty site was home to 100 residents in a 38-unit, L-shaped apartment building. Everyone who lived there was displaced by the fire. A decade and a half later, housing is one of the top priorities in the city. This year Manchester’s planning board approved a proposal to build 160 units at Manchester’s former police station. This month Manchester aldermen agreed to develop two city parking lots into housing just one block west from the overgrown corner of Chestnut and Pearl. However, those who live in the neighborhood look at the empty property and see its potential to be something more than what it currently is. 

Vacant lot on the corner of Spruce and Chestnut Streets scaled
Summer view of the vacant lot on the corner of Pearl and Chestnut. Photo/Elizabeth Ropp

A report released by the city of Pittsburgh, Pa., last year indicated that vacant city lots affect the physical and mental health of the people who live nearby, drive down property values and create the perception of increased crime. Data included in that report shows that residents who live near well-maintained vacant lots experience a 40 percent decrease in depression and that gun violence decreases by 29 percent. New Hampshire currently ranks low on gun violence, however the Granite State rates 23rd in the nation for gun-related suicides.

Nikelle Difusco, 24, lives in the apartment building next to the vacant lot with her boyfriend, Noah Oullett. She says she doesn’t feel safe parking near it. Some days, when she has to wake up at 4 a.m. to go to work at the Target store in Hooksett, she’ll park a block away.

The young couple would like to see that lot put to better use.

“It’s kind of useless right now and it just collects trash, literally,” Difusco says. “I wish it could be a little park or something. There’s a bunch of kids that come and play on the street.” 

Ouellet, 24, works as a canvasser for Americans for Prosperity, a libertarian conservative political advocacy group. He says the neighborhood does not offer enough residential parking. He would like to see the lot paved over for parking.

The need for housing is a sensitive subject for the couple. “They keep putting up housing,” Oullett says. “They call it affordable housing but it’s not.” They live in the most inexpensive building they could find, he adds. 

88 PEARL 2
ormer 88 Pearl Street apartment buildings, courtesy of the Manchester City Assessor’s Office

KBS Manchester LLC owns the lot and is current on its property taxes. Kevin Corriveau, a member of KBS Manchester, says his company went to the city with plans to rebuild shortly after the 2008 fire.

“The city wanted underground parking, which would cost over $1 million dollars,” he says. The company is working on plans for the lot to resubmit to the City in the coming months. “The city needs housing. The governor’s office knows that the city needs more housing. Hopefully, we can come up with something that will make the city happy and make us happy.”

Corriveau wouldn’t commit to providing affordable units with any new construction.

“There is no definition of affordable housing,” he says. “We are not building luxury apartments. When we do develop, we try to make it affordable, fit the character of the neighborhood, and offer fair market rates.” 

Manchester Alderman Jim Burkush was a fire chief in 2008 when the apartments at 88 and 94 Pearl Street burnt down. Regulations were different when the former apartment was built in the late 1800s, he says.

“There was no consideration for parking back then. People were crowded into apartment buildings,” Burkush says. “When you lose a building like that, the population density decreases because anything that gets rebuilt will have to reflect current fire and safety codes.”


 

About this Author

Elizabeth Ropp

Elizabeth Ropp lives in Manchester with her husband Eric and their two cats. She practices Community Acupuncture, drinks a lot of coffee and tries to make a difference.