MERRIMACK – It was an often tumultuous eight years, but in June, the Merrimack Premium Outlets were finally able to open their doors.

Planners had hurdle after hurdle before breaking ground on the ambitious, 560,000-square-foot shopping center off Exit 10 of the F.E. Everett Turnpike. The site now includes more than 100 high-end stores, along with restaurants and even more eateries on a launch pad near the bottom of Premium Outlets Boulevard, the multi-lane road leading to the center.

The Chelsea Property Group first presented plans to the Merrimack Planning Board in September 2004 to build an outlet shopping center spread across 170 acres. The Concerned Citizens of Merrimack Alliance formed in February 2005, and a two-year legal battle ensued over rezoning the property. The now-defunct group petitioned the town to require a two-thirds majority for the zoning change to pass, which ultimately was not granted.

It took four years for the town Planning Board to grant permission to Chelsea parent Simon Property Group to move forward with the $100 million project. The approval came in September 2008.

But even with the green light from the town, the project hit additional snags along the way. A majority of the initial site work included blasting the granite from the side of the hill and leveling out the property.

There was extensive environmental monitoring conducted because of the mall’s proximity to the town’s water supply. Community development director Tim Thompson said there were environmental issues that resulted from construction, including noise, vibration and blasting violations.

“The town stopped blasting on two occasions for violation of the blasting protocol. … There was one recently since I took over within the last year that had to do with the level of nitrates that were showing up in the groundwater testing,” Thompson said in June just before the grand opening. “It’s been a very long and arduous process.”

Construction of the shopping center took a year to complete and was finished just before the mall opened June 14.

In the beginning of June, about 50 carpenters, electricians, pipefitters, plumbers and other tradesmen showed up on Industrial Drive at the entrance to Merrimack Premium Outlets. They didn’t come to work, but to protest not working. The mall developer, Premium Outlets/
Simon, of New Jersey, promised them jobs and then turned around and hired out-of-state workers, the protesters claimed.

The protests lasted two days. With that aside, the next major hurdle the mall had to over come was traffic.

The Merrimack Premium Outlets held a four-day grand opening celebration the same weekend as Nashua Rotary West’s annual Rock’n Ribfest. Many feared that the dual celebrations in mid-June would cause the worst traffic nightmare in history of the town.

Merrimack Police Chief Mark Doyle worked with a consultant to design a traffic mitigation plan to minimize the backup of traffic in the areas in and around the outlets, the Everett Turnpike and Anheuser-Busch, where Ribfest is held. There were shuttles that brought people to both locations, command centers stationed at each event, and extra manpower and police to direct traffic.

When all was said and done, it was the traffic nightmare that wasn’t.

“On the whole, I’d say it went very smoothly,” said Doyle, who joined shoppers for the opening weekend festivities. “We had a lot of traffic, but we were able to manage it. Things went very well.”

Increased assessment at the Merrimack Premium Outlets was one of the factors that allowed the town to lower its 2012 tax rate by 22 cents.

Erin Place can be reached at 594-6589 or eplace@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow Place on Twitter (@Telegraph_ ErinP).