Downtown Concord has been watching the construction work on what will be Arts Alley for months, but not everything is visible from the sidewalk. Not by a long shot.

“We have over a million dollars of work underneath the ground,” said developer Steve Duprey, owner of what will be a multi-venue site between Concord Co-op and the BNH Stage on South Main Street. “We had to remove bad soils; remove asbestos in the ground; redo utility lines, ancient sewer lines, water lines – nobody thought of storm drainage 170 years ago – move gas lines.

“It’s amazing how complicated it is to do a project in a confined site, on that very small piece of land.”

Arts Alley replaces the historic Norris House, which was torn down last year after failing to find a buyer. It will hold Friendly Toast, a restaurant chain, and turn an alley into a courtyard performance space that leads to the renovated Norris Bakery and Homestead Stable Building. That building will become a “live music and simple food” restaurant called Duke’s. An elevator and stairs will take visitors to a rooftop deck featuring a historic diner that will be lifted in place by a crane.

Friendly Toast is targeting a July 4 opening, which Duprey called “aggressive,” with the rest of the development to follow during the summer.

Timing helped the project avoid current turmoil over rapidly-changing trade policies, Duprey added. “We started in May. It’s a good thing we didn’t hold for a fall start or we could have been” hit by rising costs brought on by tariffs.

Duprey said the 80-year-old diner was rebuilt outside of Montreal before being brought to Concord, where it is awaiting completion of the rest of Arts Alley.

“We were cautioned to get it to the U.S. before Jan. 20,” when President Trump was inaugurated, “to avoid any tariffs,” Duprey said.