Concord’s overall housing supply grew sluggishly this year, but projects targeting young people, families succeeded

From new restaurants to apartments and condos, several buzz-worthy projects opened their doors in Concord this year, many of them extending an open hand to younger adults.

Arts Alley, a vibrantly colored restaurant and events hub opened on Main Street, brought a popular brunch chain and rooftop bar to the heart of downtown.

Two neighboring villages of townhouses on Fisherville Road began putting units on the market. Especially marketing towards young families, the two developments will together introduce 150 units of housing to that stretch of road once all are complete.

A handful of multi-unit apartment projects opened their doors this year, too, increasing the city’s housing supply a few dozen units at a time.

Near Route 106, tenants began moving into the second phase of 123 affordable units on Pembroke Road last winter. The retrofit of the former First Congregational Church, now dubbed Circa apartments, finished in late spring, and those units were fully and quickly leased. Brady Sullivan’s transformation of the former state Department of Transportation buildings into higher-end units is preparing to take on its first round of tenants.

Meanwhile, the city’s overall housing supply and tax base grew sluggishly. Few new major housing proposals requested or received a green light from the city this year, and those already in the pipeline made little progress.

As plans to build 625 apartments, a Costco and a Whole Foods at the former Steeplegate Mall hit major snags in court, the developers who proposed that conversion pivoted to seek retail tenants in the current mall building. The change casts doubt on the fate of the Heights property in the near future.

An approved pitch to build 370 apartments at the Eastern edge of the city remains on the market, waiting for a buyer ready to build.

Construction continued on the commercial parts of a multi-use riverside complex on Manchester Street, with a St. Mary’s Bank opening there in June, but the housing portion of the proposal, more than 300 apartments, is still a ways off.

Meanwhile, two main shopping hubs in the city are full of movement. On Storrs Street, owner Brixmor Capital is renovating the plaza to create more, smaller retail spaces. An Ulta, among others, is expected to move in.

At the Merchants Way complex at Exit 17, a Chipotle, a Concord Hospital walk-in clinic and others were added to the mix, and spaces for more businesses are opening. A new Italian chain restaurant and a Marshalls are under construction.

On the whole, however, property value growth was flat in the city in the most recent tax year after several properties were sold to the city or state and taken off the tax rolls. Concord has a high proportion of tax-exempt land, and in the next year, the city faces the tough arithmetic of finding real growth to cover major projects and surprise educational costs.

In city elections this fall, winning candidates talked at length about ambitious increases in housing and the tax base, beating the drum that Concord’s top priority should be to lure developers, large and small, commercial and residential.

At the state level, lawmakers passed a raft of new housing legislations aimed at cutting red-tape and making it easier to build certain types of housing, from backyard granny flats to multi-unit apartment buildings in commercial areas. Their action was a departure from recent years, when an allegiance to local control thwarted many attempts at housing reform.

These new laws have faced backlash, and in the new year, municipalities like Concord will grapple with how to apply them to local decision making.

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