Planning Board discusses Dunkin’s drive-thru, 260-unit apartment project on South Elm Street

Sign Up For Our FREE Daily eNews!

111
Elm Street Dunkin’ location. File photo

MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Thursday, the Manchester Planning Board heard a site plan application that would add a drive-thru to the Elm Street Dunkin’ location just south of Valley Street.

Representatives of the applicants for the site plan noted that Dunkin’ locations in the area with drive-thrus make twice as much money than those that don’t and adjustments to the drive-thru of the adjacent St. Mary’s Bank in 2019 made the proposed Dunkin’ drive-thru logistically possible.

A maximum of 13 cars could queue at the proposed drive-thru, starting at the north end of the building and circling along the back until reaching the drive-thru window on the south side of the building where cars would then re-enter Elm Street.

Members of the Planning Board expressed concern with allowing cars exiting the drive-thru to turn left on Elm Street across traffic, with Planning Board Member Robb Curry referring to the current traffic situation at the Dunkin’ location as chaotic.

Representatives of the applicants said that the majority of expected traffic at the drive-thru would come during peak hours and that restricting left turns would not make sense for non-peak hours. They also indicated that dine-in traffic would also likely decrease as customers now forced to order in the store would instead choose to remain in their cars to order.

They also noted that proposed efficiency upgrades would help drive-thru orders range from a low of 30 seconds to approximately two to three minutes on average.

The representatives of applicants also responded to questions on why the drive-thru doesn’t start on the south side of the building and go north or allow cars from the St. Mary’s drive-thru to merge into the proposed Dunkin’ drive-thru by stating those ideas were infeasible.

The Planning Board will address the application at their next meeting.

Screenshot 2021 09 03 180422
The buildings at the corner of Depot and South Auburn Streets. File photo.

That application was the first of eight items on the Planning Board’s public hearing docket on Thursday night, with the last addressing a proposed multi-family residential building at the corner of West Auburn Street and Depot Street, just north of the Elm Street Market Basket.

Representatives of the Depot and West Auburn Street building, which projects to have approximately 250 three-bedroom, two-bedroom, one-bedroom and studio apartments in what will become a new five-story building, went before the Zoning Board of Appeals in August.

There, they received a variance allowing a minimum of .7 parking units per dwelling in the building, although in meeting documents from Thursday, it is expected that more parking will be planned for the project.

The bottom floor of the building will house the parking area and other infrastructural needs such as a location for garbage removal, with internal and external gardens also placed outdoors on the site.

Representatives of the proposal said that the current complex of buildings on the site, which were built between 1890 and 1914, would be demolished. However, pieces of the buildings with historical significance would potentially be reused in the new building.

Currently, parts of the complex are used for light industrial uses such as baking, cabinetry and pottery among others, while other parts of the complex are abandoned.

Members of the Planning Board were pleased with efforts by the applicant to work with the city and specifically the Arena Overlay Design Review Committee, which works to maintain the character of the city’s Gaslight District.

The proposal also received support in letters submitted by Mayor Joyce Craig, Alderman At-Large Dan O’Neil, Manchester Chamber of Commerce CEO Mike Skelton and Mike Tetu, a hailing from nearby on Old Granite Street.

Tetu told the board he was happy to wait through the three hours of other applications to share his support for the proposal.

“This is probably more significant than putting in the SNHU Arena,” he said. “I can say there is a lot of excitement in the neighborhood.”

Members of the board asked if any of the units would be priced as affordable housing units or if union labor would be used, with representatives of the applicant stating that it would be unlikely given the need to recoup expenses due to the complexity of the project.

Nearby garages would also help facilitate the need for parking for laborers working on the building, which the representatives hope would begin construction in the Summer of 2022 and last for two years.

Financing for the project would come from Jones Street, a real-estate private equity firm that has financed approximately 4,000 housing units in New England and New York State.

Although the representatives hoped that the public hearing could be closed on Thursday night, allowing the Planning Board to come to a decision on the applicant’s various requests at the next Planning Board meeting, some review from the Department of Public Works was still pending and closing the public hearing would prevent any information from that review from being taken into account.

City staff indicated that the remaining review was minor, addressing things such as entrance ways.

The proposal was continued to the Planning Board’s Oct. 8 meeting.

[googleapps domain=”drive” dir=”file/d/1CKA37uMqhzkn71PgOsAn_tRd58nM9WIL/preview” query=”” width=”640″ height=”480″ /]


Click for ⇒ 216 Elm Street project PDF

 

About this Author

Andrew Sylvia

Assistant EditorManchester Ink Link

Born and raised in the Granite State, Andrew Sylvia has written approximately 10,000 pieces over his career for outlets across Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. On top of that, he's a licensed notary and licensed to sell property, casualty and life insurance, he's been a USSF trained youth soccer and futsal referee for the past six years and he can name over 60 national flags in under 60 seconds according to that flag game app he has on his phone, which makes sense because he also has a bachelor's degree in geography (like Michael Jordan). He can also type over 100 words a minute on a good day.