Concord officials continue to consider how much public money might be invested into the private redevelopment of the Steeplegate Mall to get one of the most ambitious housing and commercial proposals in the city off the ground.
How much taxpayer money might be used and why isn’t something anyone in the city government is willing to discuss because they consider the matter real-estate negotiations and have chosen to have those conversations behind closed-doors.
“The meetings are held in non-public because public-private partnerships generally involve consideration of a developer’s request for public infrastructure improvements (for example, roads) that are ultimately acquired by the city, and the developer should not have access to those discussions,” City Solicitor Danielle Pacik wrote in response to a Monitor request for access to sealed minutes of those discussions.
Even if a public-private partnership is reached, the project might still be hung up by an ongoing legal dispute between the mall owners and JC Penney, one of few remaining retail stores on the property.
Developer Onyx Partners bought the former Steeplegate Mall and Regal Cinemas properties on Loudon Road for more than $22 million in 2023 with plans to tear down most of the mall and build some 600 apartments as well as businesses such as Costco or perhaps Whole Foods.
Typically when projects in Concord are built that require new city resources — adding new or improving existing roads, sewers, plumbing or other infrastructure — the city requires developers to pay for those additions.’
In this case, Onyx told the city that it may not be able to afford those costs and asked the city to help pay via a public-private partnership.
Onyx got approval from the planning board last year to tear down the vast majority of the former mall and received an extension on those plans this month.
“The applicant remains in discussions with existing tenants as to their tenancy intentions, and therefore respectfully requests additional time to complete demolition planning,” a planning report states.
Anchor tenant JCPenney sued the mall owners earlier this year, claiming that the noise, mess and disruption of the demolition would violate their lease, which runs through 2030.
Meanwhile, a third-party report evaluating a potential public investment in the project has been reviewed by city leaders, though its contents remain shielded from public view as negotiations play out.
After the developer approached the city about a public-private partnership, both parties commissioned a study to assess. City councilors have reviewed that report and discussed it in non-public meetings. The law allows public bodies to go into closed session to discuss “the acquisition, sale, or lease of real or personal property,” but only when discussing it publicly would “benefit a party or parties whose interests are adverse to those of the general community.”
In addition, the city determined the documents related to a potential public investment, including the third-party report, could not be publicly disclosed, declaring them “confidential, commercial, or financial information.” They denied Monitor requests to access those records.
When the Steeplegate Mall was built and opened in 1990, it transformed the northeastern part of the city and Loudon Road in an era when retail was king. Onyx’s plans to turn it into a mixed-use hub, with hundreds of market-rate apartments and shopping giants with devoted followings, like Costco, would similarly transform the Heights in an era when such developments across the state have won praise.
The 600 apartments included in the project are also a lynchpin of Concord’s ability to meet its goals in increasing housing supply. It’s 600 units represent about a third of the units under construction or proposed in the city. In 2023, the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission reported that Concord would need more than 2,200 new housing units by 2030. About 400 have been completed since the start of 2024.
Onyx did not respond to a request for comment.
Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com. You can subscribe to her Concord newsletter The City Beat at concordmonitor.com.
