many of the businesses that support real haman neighborhoods: a quality hardware store, bakeries, barbers,
doctors, banks, drugstores, and until recently, an excellent shoe store, as well as lots of restaurants. The
presence of these and other small businesses is what draws people to live downtown.
This begs the question of why a city administration that in so many other ways is supportive of quality of life
issues, would sacrifice some of its most valuable retail and not-for-profit establishments merely to please a
developer who has presented a very mediocre project. At first glance the money looks enticing: Mayor
Donchess says the proposed development will yield about $350,000 per year in property taxes; however, Jim
Rafferty, owner of The River Casino & Sports Bar, says he pays more than $300,000 in taxes each year, and
that the loss of parking caused by the proposed development will kill his business. Ace Hardware, which
invested heavily in Nashua’s downtown by expanding its building and businesses here, would also see its
prospects dim. It would be a real shame, not to mention a blow to downtown living, if Ace Hardware/Nashua
Wallpaper & Paint went the way of Alec’s Shoe Store.
There is a solution. The project should be redesigned to include much if not all of the parking needed for its
tenants. The developer may protest; that’s what developers do. But it is clear from the proposal they have
presented us versus what they feature on ther webpage that they don’t feel Nashua deserves a quality
project. In fact, they are offering us an apartment building that looks like a parking garage, but contains no
parking. (If you think I’m joking, compare their project in Manchester with the “Portfolio” on their
website, http:/Avww.parkingdevelopment.solutions/.) They can do better. And our city officials can get better
from this developer. Destroying local businesses and harming not-for-profit agencies that have long invested in
our city, just to enrich a Florida developer offering a mediocre (though expensive) housing project, is no way to
build a stronger economy. In fact, it may be the beginning of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
Sincerely,
Andrea Rebeck, Registered Architect
Master of Architecture, Columbia University
40 years practicing architecture in
The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States
111 Atherton Avenue
Nashua, NH 03064
585-590-1199
