Claremont
“The reason we are doing this is to consolidate our three offices on Water Street, Old Church Road and Maple Avenue,” NFR President and founder Steve Cossingham told the board. “It is not efficient to be spread all over town and we would like everyone in one building.”
The two-story addition will be on the western side of the existing one-story, 15,000-square-foot building and will bring the total square footage to about 35,000. The project will cost an estimated $5.5 million.
NFR, which has been in Claremont since 1991, works primarily with mortgage companies and other lenders holding mortgages on residential properties that are experiencing some form of delinquency, such as collection, bankruptcy or foreclosure. Working with subcontractors throughout the country, NFR ensures the properties are inspected, secured, repaired and maintained.
Cossingham said he hopes to break ground in November and when construction is finished next summer, they will do some additional renovations on the existing building.
NFR has about 200 employees with about half of those at the Maple Avenue office. The addition will have the capacity for around 300.
“They want to make sure their future needs are met,” said Randall Rhoades of M & W Soils Engineering of Charlestown, which worked on the site plan and made a presentation to the Planning Board. “The design is for the full build out from the start.”
In addition to the 200 parking spaces on site, there will be 70 more spaces across the street in the former location of Gary’s Claremont Tire, which was bought by NFR and then demolished. NFR also purchased the former Claremont Savings Bank building on Maple Avenue and tore it down this summer to make room for the addition and more parking.
The board had no strong objections to the plan nor did a couple of abutters, who praised Cossingham for listening to their concerns and making changes to the site plan, including moving an entrance on Acer Heights so cars exiting the lot won’t have their headlights shining into the house across the street.
The building will remain in use during construction, Jason LaCombe of SMP Architecture in Concord told the board.
Cossingham said NFR is a “quiet, clean business” that is all office space and most of the vehicles entering and exiting the lot are employees. “There is not a lot of customer traffic,” he said.
Cossingham started the company in Windsor in 1989 and moved it to Claremont on Old Church Road two years later. It has been on Maple Avenue for about 10 years; in 2013, Cossingham opened his businesses’ third office in the Wainshal building on Water Street and hired about 60 new employees.
