Construction is slated to begin soon on a new plaza that will house a Dunkin’ and one or two other retail operations at the old Bank of America site at 1090 Hooksett Road. The Dunkin’ that currently occupies the Irving Station at 6 Bell Avenue is scheduled to move into the new building once it is complete.
Town Planner Grant McGregor confirmed that a pre-construction meeting with the developer and all affected departments would happen sometime in the next few weeks. Construction will likely begin by the end of this month and will be underway in July at the latest.
Though there is currently no timeline for when construction will be complete, McGregor noted that the developer and construction crew “will try to work as hard as they can to get the project completed before next winter.”
The site design currently includes three retail spaces: Dunkin’ will occupy 1,750 square feet; Tenant A will occupy 1,450 square feet; and Tenant B will occupy 1,882 square feet. At press time, the town and developer were still discussing whether the final design would include three separate retail spaces or whether the two additional spaces would be combined into one larger space.
Bedford-based civil and structural engineering firm TFMoran is responsible for the building and landscape design. The building pays homage to classic New England architecture, with vertical and horizontal siding in light and dark gray colors intermixed with wood tones.
The lot at 1090 Hooksett Road also includes a mature locust tree, and the Hooksett Planning Board specifically asked the developer to incorporate the tree into the design.
“The planning board always takes landscaping requirements seriously,” said McGregor. “It’s become a joke among the board, but we try to preserve as much greenspace as we can.”
The planning board also asked the developer to take into account the potential widening of Hooksett Road/Route 3 in the future, and the final design reflects this request. The site has been reduced by a few feet of area, which would become state right-of-way.
