Hudson/Berlin Mall Underway
The economy may still be in the doldrums, but a $95 million, 820,000 square foot retail project along Route 62 in Hudson and Berlin is moving ahead.
Site work is underway on Highland Commons, an 820,000-square-foot retail and office development, which includes a Lowe's home improvement store slated to open in the first quarter of 2010. It sits on 163 acres, with 76 acres in Hudson and 87 acres in Berlin.
The developers are SullivanHayes Companies Northeast LLC of Connecticut and the Benderson Development Co. LLC, which is based in Florida.
When it was first proposed in 2005, the project was going to have a 220-room hotel, but that has been replaced by a BJ's Wholesale Club. The only other tenant publicly identified has been Lowe's, said Jennifer Burke, Hudson's planning director.
Lowe's chose the location partly because the area is expected to see population growth in the coming years and there is easy access to the site, said Maureen Rich, a spokesman for the North Carolina home improvement chain.
"We think there's great potential for growth in Hudson," Rich said. The store will be 117,000 square feet and have an additional 31,000-square-foot garden center. About 175 workers will staff the store, most of whom will be full-time, Rich said.
Lowe's isn't alone in believing the Hudson and Berlin area will grow.
"The town considers the project a benefit," Burke said, adding that she hopes the project draws additional economic development to the town.
Sale-Lease Back
Hudson sold the developers 23 acres for the project for $2.75 million in 2007, according to Paul Blazar, Hudson's executive assistant. As part of that deal, the developers rebuilt the town's water tower, which was on that site, at a cost of $1.5 million. Now the developers lease the site back to the town, he said.
The shopping center has been in the works for a number. It first gained approval in Hudson in 2005 and was permitted in 2006.
Berlin approved the project in May 2008.
Burke said the project slowed as the developers worked to expand the project into Berlin, but now it's moving forward. The final permitting for the project occurred in June and is good for five years.
The plan calls for 20 stores of varying sizes. There is also a 294,000-square-foot office building proposed for the Berlin portion of the property.
There are many traffic mitigation steps that the developers must take including five traffic lights along Route 62, which will also be widened to four lanes from the entrance of Interstate 495 to the eastern portion of the shopping center.
"This is a good site for development because it is so accessible from the highway and limits the impact to the local roads," said Michelle Ciccolo, Hudson's community development director.
Burke said once the shopping center is complete and occupied, Hudson expects between $750,000 and $1 million in tax revenue each year. Peggy Sardell, secretary to Berlin's Board of Selectmen, said Berlin expects to get the same.
"Generally I think people have been very supportive of the project," Blazar said. "There have been no negatives associated with it."
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