EDITOR’S NOTE: This is another in an occasional series of stories examining 50 years of Nashua business. Stories and multimedia pieces will focus on Milestones, Hidden Assets, and Movers and Shakers in the city’s business community.

NASHUA – Like the city, Nashua Technology Park is rebranding.

The John J. Flatley Co. informed aldermen this week that the future site for upscale apartments, manufacturing, retail, medical and technology space located off Spit Brook Road in south Nashua will be called Gateway Hills.

“We’ve got the apartments, a couple of potential hotel pad sites here where we are starting to get some interest, and we have the retail and medical up front,” Richard Cane, regional director for the Flatley Co., said Monday. “We are rebranding the site to Gateway Hills. … That way, we have a name that’s more generic and not specific to just the technology aspect.”

The 180-unit apartments will be known as Tara Heights Apartments at Gateway Hills. About 700,000 square feet of office space around what many recall as the former Digital Equipment Corp. facility will be called Nashua Technology Park at Gateway Hills.

Construction is well under way on the 400 acres comprising the site; the first foundations for three of five Tara Heights apartments are in and the frame is going up on the first building, Cane said.

The development will include five three-story buildings spread over 21 acres, featuring one- and two-
bedroom units.

The project broke more ledge than anticipated, Cane added, causing some problems for surrounding neighbors as blasting and hammering continued longer than expected.

The Flatley Co. anticipates building occupancy for some Tara Heights units in the spring, with its fifth building to reach occupancy by September.

Meanwhile, the local development company is having success finding tenants for Tara Commons, four single-story buildings proposed for medical and retail space.

“Most of that medical space has serious interest and we are in lease negotiations on that space,” Cane said. “The retail building we have been actively marketing, but have not made decisions as to who potential tenants might be.”

The Flatley Co. purchased the Nashua Technology Park buildings 75 percent vacant, but has been “extremely successful” over the last five years in leasing nearly 500,00 square feet of space – including 41,000 square feet to Massachusetts-based Aspen Technology, which will be hiring 150 engineers, Cane said.

Flatley has spent millions of dollars to improve the buildings, including new entrances, lobbies, elevators, hallways, a theater-style auditorium and a conference center, Cane said.

“We are fortunate enough to be working with an owner who has the resources and the commitment to go ahead and do it right and is willing to do it during the tough times,” Cane said.

Two Nashua Technology Park buildings host Benchmark Electronics and Amphenol, a high-tech light manufacturer. Flatley also is in “serious negotiations” with another Massachusetts high-tech company looking to move part of its operations over the border, Cane said.

The convenient location off Exit 1 in Nashua and the large space available, ranging from 50,000-150,000 square feet, make the area particularly desirable to lessees.

“We have a lot of activity going on,” Cane said, adding that design work to extend Innovative Way as a loop through the park and the apartments also is under way.

The ultimate goal is to make Gateway Hills a “community that people can live, work and play in,” Cane said.

Trails through the park, along with a clubhouse, vegetable gardens, a multipurpose field and a rebranded fitness center called Goals Gym, also make the site appealing to future businesses and apartment renters.

“When you do these projects, you never really know how successful they are going to be and whether the interest is really going to be there,” Cane said. “We have been very pleased with the interest.”

The goal is to have the site developed over 10-15 years, Cane said, starting with the apartments’ completion.

Toward the end of the discussion, aldermen questioned the traffic impact of the added development on Spit Brook Road.

Cane said Flatley anticipates 1,800 people will use Gateway Hills – 1,200 fewer than when Digital operated there.

But a bottleneck of traffic may eventually build up at Exit 1, Cane said. Improvements may eventually be in store for its southbound ramp or for Spit Brook Road, but the ultimate solution would be a new Exit 36 southbound ramp.

“The mayor has been very instrumental in working with the state,” Cane said. “I know the Regional Planning Commission has been funded by both Massachusetts and New Hampshire to begin the preliminary design work on that ramp. It is still a long way off, but ultimately that will be the final relief to be able to fully accommodate this traffic.”

Maryalice Gill can be reached at 594-6490 or mgill@nashua
telegraph.com. Also, follow Gill
on Twitter (@Telegraph_MAG).