Board of Aldermen — 9/12/17 Page 21
Kami Harris, Nathan Lord Road, Amherst
| am one of the co-owners of Camaraderie Boutique. | live in Amherst on Nathan Lord Road. We are a new
business. We're just 7 weeks old today but we wholeheartedly support the performing arts center.
Danielle Skelley, 10 Clydesdale Circle, Nashua
I’m the other co-owner of Camaraderie at 175 Main Street. | am also a resident in Nashua. | live at 10
Clydesdale Circle in Ward 8. | fully, fully support the performing arts center. | had a customer recently come
in and was a little disheartened when she said a friend described Nashua as the armpit of New Hampshire.
Ouch. That hurt. | don’t want to be the armpit. | want to be the heart. | want to be the heart of our city and the
way to be that heart is to nurture that heart. | just want to leave the aldermen with one thing that are maybe
against this. Nothing is changes if nothing changes. We need to change something. Please vote yes.
Bob Cagen, 23 Hampton Drive
| also own a small business in downtown Nashua. | really didn’t Know what! was going to say when | got up
here but after listening to everybody, it seems like everybody is in favor of this performing center except for a
handful of people. So | don’t know what the issue is. Nashua needs people to come down. We have empty
streets. We have empty stores with the exception of restaurants, very few stores. Very few retail businesses
are making it. | think you might be very surprised to see after Christmas much more empty stores. The
restaurants are doing fine but the regular stores aren’t. Where are we going to get our money from to pay for
this thing? We're going to get it from Bedford, Amherst, Windham, Hollis. These are people that go to many
other venues. If we had a venue and they came to our venue, they wouldn’t have to drive 20, 30, 40 extra
miles, wear and tear on their cars, pay for more gas. Everything would be spent here probably saving them
$200, $300, $400, $500 a year. They will come here. They will spend money. We will get new tenants moving
into this city and we will get new businesses moving into the greater Nashua area because when people come
downtown and see a vibrant city, they say this is where | want to open my business. This is where | want to
bring my employees. Everybody is going to be happy here. That’s it. Thank you.
James Tobin, Brady Sullivan Properties, Franklin Street
My name is James Tobin. | work with Brady Sullivan Properties. I’m here independently as a born and raised
Nashua resident. Long-time Nashua resident. I’m happy to be here. | had prepared a letter on behalf of the
ownership group and myself at Brady Sullivan | just wanted to read. “As many of you know Brady Sullivan
Properties is currently rehabilitating the Franklin Street mill building and converting it into residential community
as we have done with several historic mill buildings throughout New England. What is perhaps less known is
the acquisition of over 250,000 square feet of commercial office property here in the gate city. These
developments are clear testament to our confidence and commitment to the community in which the
constituents here tonight live, shop, work, and play. Over the years our company has focused on the long-term
commitment to New England communities most notably New Hampshire and as mentioned most recently here
in Nashua. The decision to cease an opportunity to acquire a sizable share of both the commercial and
residential market in this city came from the believe in the people here tonight and a sense of community in
Nashua. Today we firmly believe that the addition of a performance and arts center in Nashua’s Historic
Downtown would be another major step toward neighborhood revitalization and the ever important civic
attraction of the area between Exits 1, 7 and 8.
Nashua undoubtedly has the infrastructure to support the performance and arts center today. Companies ona
local level continue to grow while Massachusetts base companies have begun to look more seriously at the
benefits of operating in tax free New Hampshire. Even those who work in MA based cities north of Boston are
settling residentially on this side of the border. Between Clocktower Place, the Cotton Mill, our new
development at Franklin Street which we’re welcoming 200 new apartments with the demographic that | think
everybody wants and needs to see in Nashua and potentially twice the amount of residents of the 200
apartments, the number of business people, shoppers, and diners is increasing exponentially year over year.
The ripple effect of strategically implementing this type of civic attraction undeniably would be universally
