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URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

ui Urban Design Principles

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

THE UDA TEAM, in conjunction with city staff, developed sev- 25

eral urban design principles prior to the design charrette. These

principles acted as a compass for the direction of the Master

Plan development. Design exploration at the charrette was

pursued under the guidance of the following principles:

1
2

MO um Ff

9

Preserve and celebrate the history of Nashua.
Reconnect Downtown to the surrounding neighborhoods.

Create a gathering place, a common, or a village green as

the center of Downtown.

Connect to the regional open space system.
Calm and clarify traffic.

Develop a parking strategy for Downtown.

Develop urban design alternatives for the transitional areas
behind Main Street.

Diversify Main Street to become a mixed-use corridor -
including retail, offices, government, cultural experiences,
housing, medical resources, hospitality centers, and enter-

tainment uses.

Create an interconnected pedestrian friendly network.

10 Develop guidelines for appropriate massing and height.

es Nashua Downtown Master Plan

Market Strategies

UR EAN DESIGN assocrates Nashua Downtown Master Plan

I Econo mic Development GREAT DOWNTOWNS ARE Diverse. They center a region by 27
Strategies serving a substantial list of needs for a variety of residents.
With a stable and established Main Street North, Downtown
Nashua must now diversify and expand its economic base by
increasing investor confidence and by serving the needs of a
broader cross-section of City residents.

Downtown Nashua must also carefully market and position
itself in the region. Downtown Nashua will never out-compete
other market areas, such as Daniel Webster Highway and
Route 101A for large-scale, discount retailers and rapid hous-
ing production. Instead of competing with these market areas,
Downtown Nashua should create a lasting and unique identity
for itself — an identity that cannot be replicated elsewhere in
the region. Diversifying the Downtown economy by creating a
“24-hour Downtown” and establishing unique markets based

on sustainable strategies — not short term market trends — will

be the key ingredients to a vital Downtown for years to come.

Downtown Retail
The continued, strategic
revitalization of Main
Street in its entirety,
both north and south of
Aroilis Street, must be
coordinated and is vital
to the further growth of

the Downtown.

UR EAN DESIGN assocrates Nashua Downtown Master Plan

1 Residential Strategies

Bronstein
Apartments

The revitalization of
this public housing area
located near the heart
of Downtown into a
mixed-income
community is a great
great opportunity for
urban residential

development.

RESIDENTIAL DEMAND WILL LIKELY CONTINUE to be strongin —-28
the upcoming five to ten years. The City’s population has dou-
bled in forty years and grown approximately fifteen percent
over the past ten years. Most of the residential growth has con-
sisted of typical suburban single family housing on undevel-
oped land west of Everett Turnpike. The growth has served
traditional suburban households (primarily married parents
with school age children.) Ironically, despite the fact most of
the new housing products in Nashua have catered to “tradi-
tional households”, this household type represents only one
quarter of the region’s households. The other three quarters
consist of mostly single persons living alone, single head of
household with children or other dependents, or married cou-
ples with no children. These underserved markets are the
household types that can be targeted for Downtown Nashua’s
housing.

Like many regions across the country that have funnelled
their new housing construction to suburban areas, the demand
for new construction housing in urban areas is very strong and
relatively untapped. Thus there is strong market support for

new housing in Downtown Nashua, targeted to a large market

of “non-traditional” households.

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

First, there is an immediate demand
for affordable housing. Downtown
Nashua is the historic center of a fast-
growing and affluent sub-region (con-
sisting of Amherst, Brookline, Hollis,
Hudson, Litchfield, etc.) With its plenti-
ful supply of smaller and older homes,
Downtown Nashua has experienced sig-
nificant growth in the low and moderate
income populations.

Second, there is an immediate
demand for multi-family condominium
housing in Downtown Nashua. Most of
the region’s low-income rental housing is
in Downtown Nashua; as a result,owner-
occupied housing is at a lower percentage
than the rest of Nashua. The introduc-
tion of market rate condominium hous-
ing would bring stability to Downtown's
housing stock and broaden the range of
housing options.

The Master Plan identifies locations
for affordable and market rate housing.
The redevelopment of the publicly-
owned Bronstein Apartments is a perfect
opportunity for a mixed-income, urban
development. Physically obsolete, Bron-
stein Apartments inefficiently and inef-
fectively occupies a key site in
Downtown Nashua. The Master Plan
proposes a redevelopment program of
approximately 100 units (1/3 market-rate
rental housing, 1/3 public housing, and

1/3 low income tax-credit housing). The

new development would be economically 29
and physically integrated with the Tree

Streets neighborhood and with Down-

town Nashua. [f the redevelopment site

includes the County Health and Human

Services Building, the new development

can be built in phases without relocation

of any of the current Bronstein Apart-

ments’ residents.

In addition the the Bronstien Homes
there are other potential sites for afford-
able housing in Downtown Nashua.
Apartment units atop first floor retail on
Main Street as well as selected housing
sites along Main Street South provide
aditional opprotunities for affordable
housing.

New market rate condominium
housing is also proposed in several loca-
tions. Riverfront West presents the
strongest site for new housing. With
ClockTower Place’s conversion to hous-
ing in 1989, the first wave of “pioneers”
settled in Downtown. Buildings in the
Millyard and several Nashua Corpora-
tion buildings can be renovated to create
unique housing opportunities in a unique
urban setting. Overall, the Millyard and
the Nashua Corporation buildings have
the capacity to add up to 500 new units

to Downtown Nashua.

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

III Retail and Entertainment RETAIL DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL IN DOWNTOWN NASHUA is 30

Strategies

specialized and limited. Growth will depend largely upon
growth in other sectors, such as housing and entertainment.
Adding entertainment uses, recreational uses, regional attrac-
tions, educational uses, and other “off-hour” uses, will help sus-
tain the existing retail demand and create critical mass for
more retail opportunities.

Due to the regional concentration of discount retailers, and
national chains in the suburbs, Downtown Nashua should not
compete for such commercial development. Instead, Down-
town Nashua should seek a competitive position in a specific
retail market consisting of:

+ Downtown neighborhood-serving retail

+ Visitor and tourist-oriented retail

+ Daytime retail supporting Downtown businesses

* Selected, specialized regional retail seeking an urban set-
ting

* Retail serving the myriad uses proposed in the Master Plan

such as performing arts, recreational, educational.

To this end, the Master Plan recommends creating a second
retail node along Main Street South between Otterson Avenue
and Salmon Brook Park. Anchored by the recently renovated
Globe Plaza, now the Main Street Marketplace, the Main

Street South retail node will complement, but not compete
with Main Street North.

Retail and
Entertainment
Continued infill
initiatives and
construction of new
cultural, performance,
and entertainment
venues in the
Downtown will
provide nightlife to
complement existing
restaurants and

attractions.

DESIGN ASSOCIATES

The Market Study concluded there is a
need for better quality space to serve the
existing performing arts market in the
City. Currently, Nashua-area perform-
ance and arts groups are using several
local facilities scattered around the City.
In addition, there is a potential for a
Downtown Performing Arts Center to
compete for a regional performing arts
market that is not currently attracted to
the area. The market study recommends
a new 400 to 500 seat Performing Arts
Facility in downtown Nashua to be
developed in the short term to meet the
needs of arts groups attracting smaller
audiences.

A larger facility (800-1000 seats) is
not recommended because it will com-
pete directly with several recently built,
high quality facilities in surrounding
communities. Construction of such a
facility is significantly more expensive
than a 400-seat venue, is dependent on
touring acts, would be in direct competi-
tion with facilities in nearby cities, and
perhaps most significant, is not needed
for performing arts groups currently
operating in Nashua, with the exception
of the Nashua Symphony..

The Master Plan recommends 14

Court Street for development of the Per-

forming Arts Center. The site will

accommodate the recommended 400-

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

500 seat theatre (or a 1000-seat venue if
the market changes in the next few

years.)

The Market Study concluded there is
not currently a strong market for a hotel
in Downtown Nashua due to lack of
major room-night generators. The over-
all Nashua hotel market is currently soft
because business travel is flat. Demand
for a hotel will not likely emerge for at
least three to five years.

The Market Study recommends
long-term planning for a 75-room, lim-
ited service hotel that would serve the
needs of business and leisure travelers to
the Nashua area who prefer competi-

tively-priced hotel accommodations

located near Downtown restaurants and

The proposed hotel site is
located adjacent to the
Performing Arts Center
and along the Nashua

River,

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

shops, to rooms located along the Inter- 32
state. The Downtown hotel would be
ideally located for parents visiting stu-
dents attending Rivier College, for
example, as well as for travelers visiting
the Southern New Hampshire Medical
Center. The proposed hotel and pro-
posed Performing Arts Center could
have a mutually beneficial relationship, as
touring performers could stay at the
hotel and weekend “get-away” cultural
packages could be offered, linking
Downtown restaurants, events at the
Performing Arts Center, and hotel
rooms. The suggested hotel concept
would be an attractive, 4-to-5 story
building with 70 to 75 standard guest
rooms, a few suites, a boardroom, and an

exercise room.

UREAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES Nashua Downtown Master Plan

Initiative Areas
and Opportunities

33

URBAN DESIGN ASSOCIATES

1 Introduction

Nashua Downtown Master Plan

THE MASTER PLAN RELIES ON A BUNDLE of strategies that work 34
together to knit Nashua’s Downtown into a single, cohesive
whole. These strategies, in the form of five initiatives (see map
below), build upon the strengths and alleviate the weaknesses
of the Downtown. Together, these five initiatives will help
Downtown transform itself from a good Main Street to a great
Downtown. These strategies are illustrated and described in
the following five chapters.

To be successful, it is imperative that the streets, parks and

other public infrastructure be improved simultaneously with

the development proposed in each initiative area.