Area residents sit spaced apart inside the Hudson Community Center for a public hearing on the proposed Hudson Logistics Center.

HUDSON – An unnamed tenant has been identified for two of the three buildings located at the site of the proposed Hudson Logistics Center.

The announcement was made during a public hearing hosted by the Hudson Planning Board last week at the town’s community center.

The meeting drew a large group of people who attended physically while wearing face masks and maintaining appropriate distancing with chairs spaced out across the gymnasium floor in rows. Before opening a two-hour public comment period, various representatives with the project provided clarity and additional details on what this massive undertaking entails.

Hillwood Investment Properties is a Dallas, Texas,-based development firm seeking to construct three high-tech distribution facilities on the Green Meadow Golf Club property, which will result in 2.6 million-plus square feet of warehouse space. The firm has previously stated will be making a $300 million of investment in the property.

During the meeting, Hillwood Senior Vice President and Northeast Region Market Leader Gary Frederick said the project will have an impact on Hudson for years to come.

“This project would be long-term leases of approximately 15 years in term and represent hundreds of millions of dollars of investment,” Frederick said. “This brings a structure of tax base and a structure of jobs to the community that will be here on the ground year after year after year.”

Based on Hillwood’s experience with similar projects, Vice President of Development Justin Dunn said the estimate is that this project will create 2,500 direct and indirect jobs, with wages starting around $15-17 an hour – with benefits, training, education and opportunities for advancement. In addition, Dunn said all three of the buildings will be less than 50 feet in height to meet ordinance requirements.

Lot A, which is the largest with 161 acres, will have roughly 680 employees and 1,000 parking spaces. Lot B, which is 97 acres, will have 350 employees and about 420 parking spaces. When e-commerce picks up during the holiday season, additional employees will be hired during that period.

Lot C on the other hand does not yet have a tenant identified, but is being referred to as a spec building with 108 acres.

“That tenant hasn’t been set yet, but the other two, we know the tenant and we know exactly what is happening within that building. Each of those buildings, and that tenant, is very, very effective at their operations,” John Plante of Langan Engineering & Environmental Services said. “They’re all about efficiency.”

Plante is a professional engineer and managing principal with Langan. He explained that the building on Lot A will handle product coming in from outside manufacturers and vendors that will come in via tractor-trailer trucks into the facility. Within the facility, the products coming there are too large to be repackaged with any other package, and so they come into the facility in bulk and employees of the facility then break them down and separate that products.

Essentially, the trucks come in, park at the dock, unload their product and leave. That product is then stored in the facility and processed for future delivery to the next step in the e-commerce supply chain. In addition, Plante said that nothing leaving that building goes to a customer and no customer comes to the site to pick up or drop off.

The same tenant occupies Lot B, which also handles packages that come in from vendors or manufacturers on tractor-trailer. However, what comes in on those are very large items that cannot be handled by employees without the need of a forklift or other mechanical means to move around, such as furniture or appliances for example.

That product comes into the facility and gets unloaded and stored within the facility, and the tractor trailer then leaves. When one of those larger products is ordered by a customer, this building will then serve directly to customers, unlike Lot A. Box vans then load that product and leave to do a route in the morning and come back in the afternoon.

“The number of docks does not directly correlate with the amount of trucks coming in and out,” Plante said. “It’s to provide open docks for any vendor that’s coming in or manufacturer or truck so they don’t have to wait.”

Plante said the tenant uses their facilities to store empty trailers. On Lot A there are 100 loading docks and 400 parking spaces, adding that the tenant anticipates 131 trucks coming in and going out every day. He also said that Lot B has 135 loading docks and 250 trailer parking spaces, with incoming tractor-trailers expected to be about 25 per day. As far as the box trucks go, he said there will be about 40 leaving in the morning, before returning later in the day.

The facilities will be open 24 hours a day, with different peaks and valleys of activity. Two shifts will work each day, a day and a night shift.

President of Hayner/Swanson Inc. Jim Petropulos also spoke during the meeting, and his job with the project is as acting project surveyor. His firm is the engineer for the subdivision and public road design. He gave details on the proposed public thoroughfare from Lowell Road into the property and the ability to gain access through Walmart Boulevard. The proposal includes the design of Green Meadow Drive, which is a 2,760-foot proposed public way.

“Green Meadow Drive as proposed will enter into the property and terminate at a cul de sac, a little bit larger cul de sac,” Petropulos said while adding that it is much wider to accommodate commercial-type traffic.

The site will have these two access points, one off an extension of Walmart Boulevard and one off the new subdivision roadway off of Lowell Road. The proposal seeks to preserve 230 acres as green space.

The planning board voted 7-0 on two items at the start of the meeting. First, to grant Hillwood’s waiver request to pay the site plan application fee, which is in the neighborhood of $220,000, in three installments. One installment already has been paid. The second vote was to accept Hillwood’s application as complete.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, more than two dozen individuals either stepped up to the microphone or called in remotely to share their thoughts on the matter, raise concerns or pose questions. While some voiced their support, others raised concerns dealing with air pollution, water contamination, traffic impact and noise both during construction and once operations begin.

A site walk has been scheduled for 9 a.m. on June 13.

—

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.

Newsletter