West Lebanon
WS Development, which oversees the plaza along Route 12A,on Monday filed for a building permit with the city of Lebanon. The expansion is expected to cost about $1.5 million and will include a dog wash and fish section, according to planning documents.
For more than a decade, WS Development has been searching for a tenant to occupy the space adjacent to JCPenney store. Initial plans called for a 23,000-square-foot PetSmart for the location, but the arrangement was sidelined during a legal battle, flooding, construction of a nearby underpass and difficult economic times.
“We’re very excited, obviously. We think it’s a great addition to the center,” said Andrew Manning, a project manager with WS Development, which is based in Chestnut Hill, Mass. “It took a lot longer than we … anticipated, but we are happy to get started.”
PetSmart plans to open the West Lebanon store sometime later this year or in early 2017, a spokeswoman said via email on Wednesday. Officials with the Phoenix-based company, which which has about 54,000 employees and operates 1,387 pet stores, declined to comment further on the project.
Upper Valley Plaza has long hoped to extend its building north from JCPenney toward Interstate 89, but in 2005, city officials denied the developers a building permit for the earlier proposed PetSmart, saying the elevation would have to be 6 feet higher in order to comply with floodplain standards for new construction the state of New Hampshire had adopted a couple of years earlier.
The developers appealed the decision, and in 2009, the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled in favor of Upper Valley Plaza, saying the PetSmart plan should be considered an improvement to an existing structure, not a new building.
But because of the recession, the store still hadn’t been constructed when Tropical StormIrene hit the Upper Valley in 2011. Much of plaza was flooded by the Connecticut River, including the proposed PetSmart location. Stores that had been built in compliance with the new floodplain codes, including the plaza’s former Shaw’s supermarket and The Home Depot farther south on Route 12A, remained dry.
At the time, Jeff Goodrich, an engineer with Pathways Consulting, told the Valley News the PetSmart site surely would have been inundated by water. Pathways now is listed as the civil engineering firm for the PetSmart project.
Manning said the PetSmart store will not be raised to prevent potential flooding, but the retailer plans to include features to mitigate any future floods. Those features include water-resistant doorways and loading docks, and structural improvements designed to keep water out.
Lebanon Planning Director David Brooks said flooding remains a concern in the Upper Valley Plaza area, but the city will abide by the high court’s decision that the store does not require a higher elevation.
After Irene, expansion plans at the plaza were dormant. Developers said in 2013 that construction had been delayed to allow for construction of the connector road beneath Interstate 89 linking Upper Valley Plaza and the Kmart Plaza. Two years later, when WS Development applied to extend the approved timeline for the PetSmart site, they said that a sluggish economy had made it difficult to find a tenant after Shaw’s left the plaza.
WS Development still is trying to overcome those challenges, Manning said, but “all the pieces fell into place” on the PetSmart deal. He declined to say how long the two companies were in talks.
PetSmart’s introduction to West Lebanon might challenge local pet stores such as West Lebanon Feed and Supply.
Americans spent more than $60 billion on pet supplies in 2015, according to the American Pet Products Association, an industry trade group. About $37 billion of that was spent on food and supplies.
West Lebanon Feed and Supply owner Curt Jacques said the national brand will be challenged to match the customer service his store in downtown West Lebanon offers.
“They won’t have specialized people,” Jacques said. “… Customers that come to stores like ours have a definite need and desire to have that level of service.”
It’s not just proper training that retail stores need to provide in today’s market, Jacques said. They also have to attract people who love and care about their jobs.
Jacques said his business is not afraid of competition. PetSmart’s arrival will only create a challenge to serve customers better, he said.
“Our headquarters are here. Theirs are in Arizona,” Jacques said.
The city has 60 days to either issue the project a permit or provide reason to deny it, Brooks said, adding the building application was forwarded to city department heads this week.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.